Humberside PEEL 2018
Legitimacy
How legitimately does the force treat the public and its workforce?
To what extent does the force treat all of the people it serves with fairness and respect?
Areas for improvement
- The force should ensure that, in relation to stop and search:
- all relevant officers and supervisors understand what constitutes reasonable grounds and how to record them;
- it monitors a comprehensive set of data to enhance its understanding of fair and effective use of the power; and
- effective external scrutiny takes place.
Humberside Police understands why it must treat people fairly and respectfully. Leaders communicate with the public when things are going as planned and when they do not. This provides reassurance and demonstrates ethical standards. And frontline officers are visible and accessible at a community level, too.
Since our last inspection Humberside Police has improved use of force training for officers. So there is better understanding and recording of use of force. There are governance and scrutiny processes, but the force cannot know that use of force forms are submitted in every case. We noted some ways Humberside Police could do better at monitoring use of force. But we were pleased by the improvement in this area.
Humberside Police now gives extensive training on stop and search powers. It has also improved training on unconscious bias. The officers we spoke to understood this. We found that a proportion of searches did not have reasonable grounds recorded. The force knows how it needs to improve its stop and search monitoring. It has taken steps towards this. It should continue in its efforts. The force invites the public to scrutinise its searches in several ways, but it could do more to ensure it is being challenged externally about this.
Detailed findings for question 1
How well does the force ensure that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully?
Areas for improvement
- The force should ensure that its counter-corruption unit:
- has enough capability and capacity to counter corruption effectively and proactively; and
- can fully monitor all of its computer systems, including mobile data, to proactively identify data breaches, protect the force’s data and identify computer misuse.
- The force should ensure it refers all applicable cases of corruption to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and records these from the outset.
Humberside Police maintains an ethical culture. The workforce is aware of the force’s values. But conversations about ethical issues are not part of the force’s culture. We recommended in 2017 that the force have an ethics committee so that there was a formal process for ethical discussions. It now has an ethics committee. But the force should tell its workforce how to use it. In its PSD the force has a culture of learning and prevention, not blame. The force has complied with our 2016 vetting recommendations.
The force assesses the threat of corruption and has a plan to deal with it. Workforce members know how to report inappropriate behaviour. But some people we spoke to said they did not trust the confidentiality of the reporting system. The workforce understood the policies on business interests and associations. But we found confusion about the reporting of gifts. The force would do well to clarify this.
Humberside Police cannot yet monitor all its computer systems. This is a risk. It has plans to address this.
We made national recommendations about preventing abuse of position for a sexual purpose in 2016. The force has a plan to meet these, but has not fully implemented it.
Detailed findings for question 2
To what extent does the force treat its workforce with fairness and respect?
This question was not subject to detailed inspection in 2018/19, and our judgment from the 2017 legitimacy inspection has been carried over.