PEEL spotlight report: A system under pressure

Foreword

This report gives an overview of the emerging themes from the first group of 2018/19 PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) inspections. These themes are based on findings from the 14 force reports we have included in this group.

Each individual force report is based on robust evidence. However, with only 14 of the 43 forces in England and Wales inspected in this first group, our conclusions must be tentative and we don’t yet know whether they will be replicated nationally. The remaining 29 forces in England and Wales will be covered in the next two groups of reports.

Overall, we have found that the forces we have inspected are performing well. Most are keeping people safe and reducing crime, using their resources efficiently, and treating their workforces and the communities they serve fairly and with respect.

But despite this relatively positive picture of performance, our findings indicate that some forces are straining under significant pressure as they try to meet growing complex and high-risk demand with dwindling resources. This pressure has grown since our inspections last year, and is affecting different forces in different ways. We have seen the effects from neighbourhood policing and investigations through to counter-corruption and workforce health and wellbeing.

Given the current operational and financial context forces find themselves in, it isn’t clear for how long they will be able to maintain their current performance levels. For many of the forces we inspected in this group, cracks are beginning to appear in the system.

Matt Parr

HM Inspector of Constabulary

About this report

PEEL is our annual assessment of police forces in England and Wales.

We assess forces in three ways to find out:

• how effective they are at preventing and investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people and tackling serious organised crime;
• how efficiently they manage demand and plan for the future; and
• how legitimately they treat the public, how ethically they behave, and how they treat their workforce.

We judge forces as ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ in these categories (or pillars).

In 2018/19, we adopted an integrated PEEL assessment (IPA) approach. This combines the effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy pillars into a single inspection. We assess forces against every pillar every year.

As part of the IPA approach, we have looked for ways to reduce the intensity of inspection on forces. Based on our analysis of previous inspections and other information, we have used a risk-based approach (RBA), which means that well-performing forces are inspected on fewer areas.

In this group of inspections, we used an RBA to focus on the following elements of the 14 forces (see Table 1 below):

Table 1: Risk-based assessment of forces in the first group of forces in the 2018/19 integrated PEEL assessment

	Crime prevention	Crime investigation	Protecting vulnerable people	Serious organised crime	Specialist capabilities	Demand management	Future demand	Treating public with fairness and respect	Behaving ethically and lawfully	Treating workforce with fairness and respect
City of London		X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Cumbria			X		X		X	X	X
Durham		X	X		X		X		X
Dyfed-Powys	X		X		X	X	X	X	X	X
Essex		X	X		X	X	X		X
Gloucestershire	X	X	X	X	X		X		X
Greater Manchester	X	X	X		X	X	X		X	X
Humberside		X	X		X	X	X	X	X
Kent		X	X		X		X		X
Leicestershire		X	X		X	X	X		X
Norfolk	X	X	X		X		X		X
Nottinghamshire	X		X		X	X	X		X	X
West Midlands			X		X		X	X	X	X
Wiltshire			X	X	X		X		X	X

Summary of grades

On effectiveness, we graded one force as outstanding, twelve as good and one as requiring improvement.

On efficiency, we graded three as outstanding, eight as good and three as requiring improvement.

On legitimacy, we graded one force as outstanding, eleven as good and two as requiring improvement.

Because we inspect forces using an RBA, it is a realistic possibility that a small minority of these results may be more positive than they would otherwise have been.

Headline findings

The demand for policing is changing. It is becoming increasingly complex and involves greater risk. This problem is compounded by restricted resources, most notably a shortfall of detectives. Meeting this demand with constrained resources is the biggest challenge currently facing the forces we inspected.

• Forces’ change programmes may mitigate some of the problem. But some forces weren’t clear on the benefits they expected to achieve from these programmes.
• Forces are improving their ability to predict demand. But few had tested the assumptions that underpinned their forecasts, or had plans to meet the demands they had identified.

Officers and staff are taking on a wider range of activities, with some negative consequences

Response, investigation and neighbourhood policing roles are becoming less distinct. This helps to meet the short-term challenges of demand, but we found some negative consequences.

• Redeploying neighbourhood officers, often to response, can damage their crime prevention work, limiting their engagement with communities.
• In some forces, this is also leading to inexperienced and underqualified staff investigating frequently committed crimes such as burglary, often without good enough supervision.

Managing demand is stretching forces’ ability to root out corruption

The pressures of increased demand are being felt right across forces, including in some of their most sensitive functions.

• Some of the forces we inspected had poorly resourced counter-corruption units and significant vetting backlogs. Failing to uncover and deal with corruption at an early stage has profound ethical implications, and threatens to increase demand on police forces in the longer term.

Forces are identifying vulnerability more effectively and are investing in technology to better match resources to demand

Despite the pressures the forces we inspected were under, there were areas of improvement and innovation.

• Most forces have improved their understanding of hidden forms of vulnerability, with officers and staff showing a good understanding of what they are looking for.
• Several of the forces we inspected were developing good practice in how they use technology to manage their demand and resources better.

The pressures of demand affect the health and wellbeing of the workforce

Changing demand, higher workloads, longer hours, and the cancellation of leave and rest days take a toll. Staff taking more sick days, or going to work when they are ill, threatens to compound all the other problems we have identified.

• The forces we inspected were promoting and taking action on wellbeing, but officers and staff don’t always feel able to access the support on offer.
• Some force occupational health services are struggling to meet demand.

Some forces aren’t monitoring their use of stop and search well enough

The government recently announced changes to stop and search powers as part of the response to increases in knife crime. Proper scrutiny by forces and the public of the use of these powers is essential and must not be compromised.

• Some forces don’t monitor a comprehensive enough set of data on how they use force and stop and search powers. This monitoring is necessary to maintain the trust and confidence of the public.

Our findings

The nature of demand is changing and is increasingly complex and high risk

We judge that the volume of demand for policing services has stayed broadly stable in this group of forces. However, there are signs that the nature of demand is changing and is skewed towards more complex and higher-risk crime.

For example, there have been rises in some lower-volume but more serious types of violence. In particular, there has been a rise in the number of robbery offences and homicides recorded by the police in England and Wales, and offences involving knives and sharp instruments (although this is partly because of better crime recording). There have also been increases in police-recorded sexual offences and domestic abuse.

Calls to 999 are increasing in number. Most of the forces we inspected in this group reported an increase in the number of 999 emergency calls they received between 2016/17 and 2017/18. The England and Wales overall rate for 999 calls increased by 5 percent for the same period.

This is balanced to some degree by a decrease in the number of 101 non‑emergency calls that many of the inspected forces received over the same period. The England and Wales overall rate for 101 calls went down by 3 percent for the same period.

Our 2018 Public Perceptions of Policing in England and Wales survey shows that there has been a decrease in the proportion of respondents who think the police are easy to get hold of in an emergency. This, together with the increase in 999 calls and the decrease in 101 calls, suggests the public are losing confidence in 101. Rather than wait for a 101 call to be answered, they instead phone 999, which they have more confidence in.

Table 2: Financial year comparison of 999 call volumes between 2016/17 and 2017/18 for the first group of forces

	2016/17	2017/18	% change
Cumbria	53,563	58,220	8.7
Durham	77,238	84,652	9.6
Dyfed-Powys	46,732	35,232	-24.6
Essex	279,556	292,565	4.7
Gloucestershire	75,188	77,493	3.1
Greater Manchester	536,814	579,364	7.9
Humberside	137,123	150,722	9.9
Kent	313,880	317,599	1.2
Leicestershire	140,221	138,893	-0.9
Norfolk	93,238	98,623	5.8
Nottinghamshire	186,051	179,825	-3.3
West Midlands	696,576	704,348	1.1
Wiltshire	78,598	94,587	20.3
England and Wales	9,307,138	9,768,845	5.0

Table 3: Financial year comparison of 101 call volumes between 2016/17 and 2017/18 for the first group of forces

	2016/17	2017/18	% change
Cumbria	236,378	301,447	27.5
Durham	332,977	333,243	0.1
Dyfed-Powys	283,367	262,541	-7.3
Essex	434,923	379,095	-12.8
Gloucestershire	233,842	219,759	-6.0
Greater Manchester	816,784	720,503	-11.8
Humberside	394,582	397,703	0.8
Kent	582,737	548,274	-5.9
Leicestershire	417,937	501,342	20.0
Norfolk	268,215	267,210	-0.4
Nottinghamshire	443,203	443,818	0.1
West Midlands	1,522,283	1,343,861	-11.7
Wiltshire	313,796	277,279	-11.6
England and Wales	22,795,882	22,121,430	-3.0

Note: City of London Police uses the Metropolitan Police Service command and control so has no separate data available

Forces are refocusing their resources to meet changing demand

Meeting changing demand is proving to be the most significant problem for the forces we inspected in this group. Forces are addressing this with an array of change programmes aimed at improving how they use their resources.

These changes include restructuring their operating models, introducing more shared services and adjusting shift patterns to align with peaks in demand. However, in some cases, forces struggled to explain to us the benefits of their change programmes. It wasn’t always clear what change the force had expected and how the programme would drive that change. For completed programmes, it wasn’t always clear whether the force had achieved the intended benefits.

Most forces in this group have sound financial plans and are generally improving their understanding of future demand. This includes hidden demand, such as modern slavery offences, county lines activity and cuckooing. However, some forces still need to carry out more work to make sure assumptions about future demand are based on sound evidence and analysis.

Some forces also need to improve their understanding of skills gaps and develop their workforce plans to align them better to likely future demand. This will help them allocate their resources effectively to make sure they can better meet demand, as well as public expectations.

For example, one force we inspected had identified what the public expects from it, but couldn’t give us evidence of any plans for changes to take this into account. Similarly, another force had identified that frequently committed crime, such as burglary, is likely to be a problem in the future, but we found limited evidence of any plans the force had to deal with this.

Redeploying officers threatens to undermine neighbourhood policing

We have raised concerns before about local policing being eroded and have been tracking this throughout our PEEL inspection process. In 2017, we found that some forces didn’t understand well enough the extent to which their officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) were being taken away from their local policing duties to do immediate work elsewhere. We found that this trend appears to have continued over the past year.

These redeployments make it more difficult for officers and PCSOs to carry out problem solving work, and can undermine planned visits to vulnerable residents and groups. Officers can find themselves taken off neighbourhood work to cover higher-risk work. This means that neighbourhood activities, such as community engagement and crime prevention, aren’t always taking place. These redeployments can be planned, but are often reactive, in which case neighbourhood officers often don’t have time to make alternative arrangements.

We are concerned that some forces don’t have a good enough policy or measures to monitor these redeployments. They don’t fully understand their frequency, or their impact on problem solving, engagement and prevention work. Effective problem solving reduces calls for other policing services, so forces need to measure how often they redeploy officers, understand the effects of this and review its effectiveness.

We welcome the neighbourhood policing guidelines produced by the College of Policing, working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for neighbourhood policing. We will keep monitoring the scale of this issue as we continue our inspections.

Crimes such as burglary are being investigated by inexperienced staff, without good enough supervision

Recorded crime in England and Wales (excluding fraud) increased by 8.5 percent in the 12 months ending September 2018 compared with the previous 12 months. (This may in part be due to improved crime reporting processes.) There has been a recent downward trend in the number of charges and a growing number of cases recorded where victims don’t support police action. This is likely to have been influenced by an increased caseload and changing crime mix.

Demand on investigators has increased, not only in the volume of investigations they have pursued, but also in the complexity of those investigations. Investigations have become more complex because of the growth of crime online, the need to examine data on personal devices and improvements in identifying and understanding vulnerable victims.

Forces increasingly filter this demand via risk assessment. High-risk investigations are allocated to specialist investigators, who are supervised by experienced managers. Frequently committed crime, such as burglary and theft from vehicles, tends to be investigated by staff who often have less training and supervision. Often crimes are resolved over the telephone or allocated to neighbourhood policing or response officers to progress. These officers often don’t have enough formal training and qualifications in investigation. They also work shifts, which aren’t always conducive to carrying out a speedy and thorough investigation.

During our review of crime files, the investigations in which we found failings were generally in the category of frequently committed crime. This may have a negative effect on outcomes. Of the 2,608 files we randomly selected from crimes recorded between 1 January 2018 and 31 March 2018, only 75 percent of theft offences and 76 percent of common assaults had effective investigations. This means a quarter of these complainants aren’t getting the service they should expect.

Investigator shortages and poor supervision

Despite our national recommendation in 2017, and the subsequent national action plan from the NPCC, most forces still have many accredited investigator vacancies. There has been some progress, and the deficit has decreased from 19 percent to 14 percent over the past 12 months. Reducing the deficit completely will take a few years, mainly because of how long it takes an investigator to become accredited, and the natural loss of qualified staff through retirement and promotion. However, in our view, forces need local plans, including training, continuing professional development (CPD) and quality supervision.

We consistently found poor supervision of investigations, especially non-specialist investigations. We assessed as requiring supervision 1,777 out of the 2,608 files we randomly selected from crimes recorded between 1 January 2018 and 31 March 2018.  Of these 1,777 files, 32 percent didn’t have effective supervision. Such supervision is vital to give investigators, especially inexperienced ones, direction, support and guidance. It helps the investigator to maximise the evidential opportunities offered by the crime and to best support victims.

Despite the pressures, forces are becoming better at victim care and identifying vulnerability

Despite the pressure forces are under, there is a promising growth in their knowledge and understanding of hidden forms of vulnerability, such as modern slavery. Generally, officers and staff have a good understanding of vulnerability and gave us examples of what they have done in this area. There is a growing consideration, awareness and knowledge of how to protect and support people in mental health crisis and partnership approaches to improving patient care are evident in every force.

We continue to find improvements in how well forces identify incidents of domestic abuse. However, four forces have a problem with the number and/or quality of their domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, and honour-based violence (DASH) risk assessments. In one force, there was confusion about when to complete a DASH assessment and what a domestic incident is. In three other forces, DASH assessments were being conducted inconsistently, infrequently and poorly.

This is worrying, because it means that vulnerable victims may not be appropriately identified, supported and safeguarded. Forces may miss opportunities to intervene and victims may be less likely to engage with the police in the future.

Managing demand is stretching forces’ ability to uncover and address corruption

Police forces need enough capacity and capability in their counter-corruption units to root out corruption. Uncovering corruption leads to a short-term increase in demand. But, as well as the profound ethical considerations, dealing with corruption at an early stage reduces demand in the long term.

Vetting is the first line of defence that forces have against corruption. In 2016, we recommended that, by December 2018, all members of the police workforce should have received at least the lowest level of vetting clearance for their roles. However, of the forces that we inspected in this group, we found that three had much more work to do to make sure all members of their workforce had the appropriate level of vetting.

We are also concerned about the standard of forces’ strategic threat assessments of corruption. These assessments are essential for establishing a national picture. Three of the assessments that we inspected in this group of inspections didn’t comply with the approved professional practice and were based on limited and outdated information. This means they will be difficult to combine into an accurate national picture of the current level of risk associated with corruption and insider threat.

Abuse of position for a sexual purpose

In 2016, we highlighted our concern about a specific type of corruption: abuse of position for a sexual purpose. We recommended that all forces should implement plans:

to achieve the capability and capacity required to seek intelligence on potential abuse of authority for sexual gain. These plans should include consideration of the technology and resources required to monitor IT systems actively and to build relationships with the individuals and organisations that support vulnerable people.

Forces have now had two years to implement those plans in full. Disappointingly, only two of the forces we inspected have done everything they need to do in this respect. Most didn’t have enough resources in their counter-corruption units to do the proactive work needed to identify corrupt activities. Many haven’t fully deployed software that allows them to monitor the use of their IT systems. And some haven’t established sustained contact with agencies that support vulnerable people, to help identify perpetrators.

Forces are investing in technology to better match resources to demand

The forces we inspected in this group recognised that technology could help them manage demand. They are investing in technology to understand their demand better and use their resources more effectively.

Good practice we saw during our inspections included:

• a digital leadership programme to help leaders exploit data and technology;
• technology used in digital investigations in one high-tech crime unit to prioritise work based on safeguarding needs, to make sure those at risk of harm get a speedy response;
• the use of digital media investigators in control rooms in the initial response to missing people, to identify the location of the missing people more quickly and with fewer resources; and
• a project to bring information held in different systems into one place, so that the force can use the information more effectively.

Other forces were at an earlier stage of development. They had plans to introduce new technology to manage demand, but they hadn’t yet implemented them.

Examples of potentially innovative plans included:

• work with academics to understand demand through demographics and ‘big data’; and
• plans to align a force’s website to a national portal (the national single online home) to improve online reporting.

The pressures of demand are affecting the health and wellbeing of the workforce

In the forces we inspected, we found that changing demand and constrained resources are leading to higher workloads, longer working hours, and cancellation of leave and rest days.

As well as the overall volume of work, the changing nature of demand is leading to growth in areas such as investigating modern slavery and non-recent sexual abuse. This kind of work can cause more stress than many more traditional areas of policing. The increased pressure has a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of officers and staff. It is increasing the number of sick days they take or causing them to work while ill.

Senior police leaders promote wellbeing, but workforces don’t always feel the benefits. Sometimes staff and officers can’t access support because of lack of awareness, staff shortages, and the volume and pressures of work.

Forces have an inconsistent understanding of the risks to the wellbeing of their workforces and the underlying causes. The forces we inspected in this area regularly carry out some level of analysis to identify patterns and to direct support, but they need to use a broader range of information and conduct more robust analysis.

Forces are increasingly good at providing support following traumatic incidents, but can be less effective at day-to-day support. For example, many supervisors aren’t having regular management meetings with their staff. Increasing demand, decreasing resources and the reducing stigma around mental health is leading to more pressure on support services. Some force occupational health departments struggle to meet this demand.

Some forces aren’t monitoring their use of stop and search well enough

The Government recently announced changes to stop and search powers as part of the response to increases in knife crime. Proper scrutiny by forces and the public of the use of these powers is essential and, in the context of the many competing demands, must not be compromised.

Forces generally understand the importance of engaging well with the public and use a range of methods to communicate effectively with their diverse communities.

Comprehensive supervision and scrutiny, both internal and external, are important in retaining and building public confidence and trust in the police. They are likely to improve the flow of information from the public and so help the police to prevent and detect crime.

Monitoring stop and search data

The forces we inspected are generally making progress and have the governance structures in place to monitor the use of force and stop and search powers. However, some don’t monitor the use of these powers comprehensively enough to establish if the powers are used fairly and effectively, and some are missing opportunities to learn from reviewing body-worn video footage.

In our 2017 legitimacy report, we recommended that all forces should:

• monitor and analyse comprehensive stop and search data to understand reasons for disparities;
• take action on those; and
• publish the analysis and the action by July 2018.

There has been some limited progress against these recommendations, but we didn’t find any of the forces we inspected to be fully compliant. We saw a lack of monitoring of find rates by ethnicity for different types of search. (The find rate is the rate at which officers find what they were searching for.) This monitoring helps to identify potential unfairness.

Forces also need to continue their focus on making sure their grounds for stop and search are reasonable. This year, in each force, we have found a slight reduction in the number of cases in which we assessed the grounds for stop and search as being reasonable, compared with our findings in 2017.

Not all the inspected forces have effective external processes and panels in place to scrutinise the use of force and stop and search. Some aren’t truly independently chaired. Some would benefit from greater involvement of, and representation from, more diverse communities. And some would benefit from reviewing a broader, more comprehensive set of data and other relevant information.

Without effective monitoring of data on the use of force and stop and search powers, forces can’t be sure they are using these powers fairly and effectively, or improve how they use them. Also, by not publishing this information, forces are missing opportunities to be open about their powers, their integrity in exercising those powers and their accountability in doing so. This openness is essential to maintaining public support and co-operation, which form the cornerstone of the British model of policing by consent.

Definitions and interpretations

anti-corruption unit	specialist team, usually part of a professional standards department, which gathers information and intelligence on police officers and staff suspected of corrupt activity and those who seek to corrupt them, and undertakes investigations; the National Police Counter Corruption Advisory Group and the Independent Police Complaints Commission have defined police corruption as occurring when “a law enforcement official commits an unlawful act or deliberately fails to fulfil their role arising out of an abuse of their position for personal or perceived organisational advantage having the potential to affect a member of the public”
continuing professional development (CPD)	in a policing context, the range of learning activities through which officers and police staff maintain or enhance their capacity to carry out their roles legally, safely, ethically and effectively; “maintaining” means officers and police staff taking personal responsibility to ensure that they keep their knowledge and skills up to date, in line with any changes to legislation or practice advancements and also with existing national standards for their roles (such as authorised professional practice); “enhancing” means that every officer and member of police staff is expected to commit to continuously seeking to improve, either within the scope of an existing role or to support career progression; the CPD framework for police officers and staff has been designed and developed by the College of Policing
control room	police control and communications room that manages emergency (999) and non-emergency (101) calls, and sending police officers to those calls
county lines	practice of individuals or gangs using vulnerable children and adults to transport and sell Class A drugs, primarily from urban areas into market or coastal towns or rural areas to establish new drug markets or take over existing ones; also using children to transport and hide weapons and to secure dwellings of vulnerable people in the area, so that they can use them as a base from which to sell drugs
cuckooing	means by which a drug dealer (or network) takes over the home address of a vulnerable person to use it to prepare, store or deal drugs; commonly associated with exploitation and violence
domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, and honour-based violence (DASH) risk assessment	risk identification and assessment checklist introduced in March 2009 and now used by all police services in England and Wales and a large number of partner agencies working in the field of public protection; aims to save and change lives through early identification of risk, intervention and prevention in areas such as domestic abuse, stalking, so‑called ‘honour-based abuse’, child protection, adult safeguarding, sexual abuse, mental health and missing persons; also aims to create a common language across agencies in the referral of cases to risk management meetings such as Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences
force management statement (FMS)	annual statement, published by each force and certified by the chief constable, containing in respect of the following four years: (a) projections of demand on the force, including crime and non-crime demand, latent and patent; (b) an assessment of the state of the force’s people and assets to be used to meet that demand (their condition, capacity, capability, performance, serviceability and security of supply); (c) the steps the force intends to take to improve the efficiency and economy with which the force will maintain and develop its workforce and other assets, and discharge its obligations to the public; and (d) the financial resources that the force expects to have to meet demand
high-tech crime	crime committed either against new technologies or with the support of new technologies, often involving (but not restricted to) computers or computer networks
integrated PEEL assessment (IPA)	assessment carried out by HMICFRS; comprises three elements: PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) inspections, force management statements (FMSs) and force monitoring
modern slavery	crime encompassing slavery, servitude, forced labour and human trafficking
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC)	body that replaced the Association of Chief Police Officers on 1 April 2015; brings together operationally independent and locally accountable chief constables and their chief officer teams to help the police service co-ordinate operations (including operational responses to threats such as terrorism, organised crime and national emergencies), reform, improve and provide value for money; its primary decision-making forum is the Chief Constables’ Council; it is underpinned by a collaboration agreement between chief constables, police and crime commissioners and non-Home Office force equivalents under section 22A, Police Act 1996
neighbourhood policing	policing carried out by neighbourhood teams primarily focused on a community or a particular neighbourhood area; also known as ‘community policing’
police community support officer (PCSO)	uniformed non-warranted officer employed by a territorial police force or the British Transport Police in England and Wales; established by the Police Reform Act 2002; has fewer powers than a police officer but day-to-day duties usually include high-visibility patrolling, tackling anti-social behaviour, dealing with minor offences, crowd control and traffic management, and generally supporting frontline policing
police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL)	annual assessment of police forces in England and Wales, carried out by HMICFRS; forces are assessed on their effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy; they are judged as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate on these categories, based on inspection findings, analysis and Her Majesty’s Inspectors’ professional judgment across the year
problem solving (crime)	systematic identification and analysis of crime and disorder problems by police officers and staff to develop specific responses to individual problems, implement those responses and then assess whether the responses have been successful
recruitment vetting	one of three types of vetting designed to provide assurance about the integrity of individuals who have access to sensitive criminal intelligence, or financial or operational police assets or premises; it is used to vet police officers and police staff and is the minimum level of check to ensure access to police force assets, estate and information; the other two types of vetting are management vetting and non-police personnel vetting
safeguarding	the protection of an individual’s health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect
stop and search powers	statutory powers a police officer may use to stop and search someone to prevent and detect crime, and to avoid unnecessary arrest in circumstances where a quick search might confirm or eliminate an officer’s suspicions; use of these powers is lawful if an officer has reasonable grounds for suspicion that a person is in possession of a stolen or prohibited item, or controlled drugs, or if a person is in an area where serious violence is anticipated; most powers used are provided for in section 1, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984; section 23, Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; and section 60, Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
vulnerability	condition of a person who is in need of special care, support or protection because of age, disability or risk of abuse or neglect

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PEEL spotlight report: A system under pressure