Warwickshire PEEL 2018

Warwickshire Police prioritises crime prevention. It consults the public when setting neighbourhood priorities. And it understands the threats that its communities face.

The force is good at protecting the public from harm. Its safer neighbourhood teams work well with partner organisations, such as local authorities, housing associations and those who support victims of crime, most notably in a successful initiative to address begging in Leamington Spa.

The force uses preventative tactics well to tackle crime. It also uses a wide range of orders. It should record partners’ use of powers, tactics and inventions.

Warwickshire Police requires improvement in the way it investigates crime.

At times, the force does not have enough capacity and capability to cope with investigative demand. This adversely affects the service it gives to the public. The force keeps victims waiting too long to see an officer, and it takes too long to investigate some crimes. Sometimes, the force tasks response officers with investigating more complex crimes. It also has substantial investigator vacancies that it is working to fill. It needs to improve the quality of its investigations.

Supervisors admitted that they cannot adequately supervise the high number of crimes that officers on their teams are responsible for. This view was borne out by our review of a sample of crime files: more than half had ineffective or no supervision.

The force has made efforts to clear backlogs in its investigative workload. Now it needs to make sure that body-worn cameras are both available to, and consistently used by, officers to secure early evidence. And it must work harder to pursue justice when victims do not support a prosecution.

The force has good processes for managing wanted suspects who are listed on the Police National Computer (PNC). It also has effective processes to manage foreign national offenders. Among other measures, it now needs to put processes in place to understand and prioritise effectively those suspects who represent the most harm to the public. Furthermore, it needs a better understanding of its performance in relation to suspects who are released under investigation (RUI). It also needs to improve its levels of compliance with disclosure obligations.

Warwickshire Police is good at protecting vulnerable people. Its emphasis on vulnerable people is apparent in its strategic assessment, its control strategy and its vision.

Officers work effectively with partners to identify and safeguard vulnerable people. But technical issues prevent a force-wide understanding of the nature and scale of vulnerability.

The force carries out effective risk assessments when responding to incidents. It needs to make sure that as many callers as possible receive an appropriate and timely response.

The force needs to review older domestic abuse cases to make sure that it is managing them effectively. And it needs to use pre-charge bail to better safeguard victims of domestic abuse.

Warwickshire Police is good at tackling SOC. It understands the threat posed by this type of crime and holds daily threat identification meetings. Partners that participate in serious and organised crime joint action groups (SOCJAGs) need to share information more readily with the force.

The force prioritises work on county lines. The county of Warwickshire is impacted by county lines from other policing areas. The force is also active in tackling OCGs, gangs and networks.

The force is proactive in seeking to prevent SOC by helping those who might otherwise become involved in it. It works with partners to protect vulnerable people, and to offer interventions and support.

The force’s Operation Impression aims to educate all schoolchildren in the county about the dangers of knife crime.

We have previously inspected how well forces provide armed policing. This formed part of our 2016 and 2017 effectiveness inspections. Subsequent terrorist attacks in the UK and Europe have meant that the police service maintains a focus on armed capability in England and Wales.

It is not just terrorist attacks that place operational demands on armed officers. The threat can include the activity of OCGs or armed street gangs and all other crime involving guns. The Code of Practice on the Police Use of Firearms and Less Lethal Weapons (PDF document) makes forces responsible for implementing national standards of armed policing. The code stipulates that a chief officer be designated to oversee these standards. This requires the chief officer to set out the firearms threat in an armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment (APSTRA). The chief officer must also set out clear rationales for the number of armed officers (armed capacity) and the level to which they are trained (armed capability).