PEEL: Dyfed-Powys Police cause of concern – crime data integrity
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Introduction
If our inspection identifies a serious or critical shortcoming in a force’s practice, policy or performance, it will be reported as a cause of concern. A cause of concern will always be accompanied by one or more recommendations. When we identify causes of concern during our inspections, we normally provide details in the subsequent force report.
Sometimes, such as when we discover significant service failures or risks to public safety, we report our concerns and recommendations earlier. This is called an Accelerated Cause of Concern.
Failure to make improvements
We last inspected Dyfed-Powys Police’s crime data integrity (the quality of a force’s crime data) in 2018. We reported that the force was failing to record all reported crime, including violent crime – in particular domestic abuse. In response, we issued a cause of concern.
We inspected crime data integrity again in 2021. We found that the force had failed to make the expected improvements to its crime recording standards since our 2018 inspection.
Based on our findings, we estimate that Dyfed-Powys Police is only recording 87.6 percent of all reported crime. We estimate this means the force is not recording over 4,400 crimes each year. Its performance is even worse for offences of violence against the person. We found only 85.4 percent of violence offences are being recorded. These recording levels are broadly unchanged from our findings in 2018.
Some of these crimes are domestic abuse cases or involve vulnerable victims. Failure to record a crime often results in a victim not being properly safeguarded and no investigation taking place.
Problems with crime recording
We found minimal evidence of crime recording being effectively supervised. This is important to identify when a crime has not been recorded properly. It allows the force to review the police response by making sure the victim is safeguarded and an appropriate investigation is completed.
The force also failed to record crimes related to incidents of anti-social behaviour towards people. These include harassment offences. In such cases, victims live in fear and can experience significant anxiety. The force must ensure that these crimes are recorded so that vulnerable victims can be safeguarded.
Cause of concern
Dyfed-Powys Police is too often failing to record reports of violent crime, particularly domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour towards people.
Recommendations
The force should immediately:
- take steps to identify and address gaps in its systems and processes for identifying and recording all reports of crime (giving particular attention to domestic abuse-related violent crime); and
- put in place arrangements to make sure that adequate supervision is applied to crime-recording decisions made by officers and staff.
Within three months the force should:
- provide specific training for all supervisors, officers and staff who work in crime recording roles. This training should include the crime recording requirements for violent crime, including domestic abuse and anti-social behaviour (personal).
This notification of a cause of concern constitutes a report under section 54, Police Act 1996. As it also contains recommendations, the local policing body is required to respond under section 55, Police Act 1996.
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PEEL: Dyfed-Powys Police cause of concern – crime data integrity