Wiltshire Police: PEEL Cause of concern revisit letter

Letter information

From:
Wendy Williams
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary
His Majesty’s Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services

To:
Kier Pritchard
Chief Constable
Wiltshire Police

Cc:
Philip Wilkinson
Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire

Sent on:
20 December 2022

Background

Between 17 January and 11 February 2022, we inspected Wiltshire Police as part of our PEEL programme. During our inspection, we identified three causes of concern, which were that the force:

• is failing to understand and promptly identify the vulnerability of victims at the first point of contact;
• does not protect vulnerable people from harm to an acceptable standard; and
• does not have adequate strategic plans in place.

In November 2022, we revisited the force to review progress against the first two causes of concern by repeating the victim service assessment. This allowed us to discover and report on any progress made against several of the relevant recommendations we had made to the force.

As part of this assessment, we reviewed 90 case files. In addition, we also reviewed 60 ‘outcome types’. (When the police close a case of a reported crime, it is assigned an outcome type. This describes the reason for closing it.)

A brief summary of our findings is as follows:

• The force often uses a structured risk assessment to assess risk to victims. And it is recording this risk assessment accurately on call logs more often than during our previous inspection.
• The force is checking whether victims are vulnerable more often than in our previous inspection, and has improved how promptly it records detailed risk assessments for victims of domestic abuse.
• The force isn’t routinely checking for repeat victims. The performance in this area hasn’t meaningfully progressed since our last inspection.
• The force isn’t routinely giving victims crime-prevention or scene-preservation advice. The performance in this area hasn’t meaningfully progressed since our last inspection.
• The force isn’t routinely recording the consideration of evidence-led prosecution (if a victim withdraws support for an investigation) or the application of auxiliary orders to protect victims, such as domestic violence prevention orders (DVPOs).

Our more detailed findings are set out below.

Progress against the causes of concern recommendations

Below we list our recommendations to the force from our 2021 inspection and report on progress towards them we found during our revisit:

Improve the process of risk assessing callers to identify those that are vulnerable or at risk.

This recommendation was met.

The force used a structured triage approach in 54 of the 55 cases we reviewed, with an accurate record of the triage being recorded on the incident log in 52 of 54 cases. This is an improvement compared to our 2021 inspection, when 18 of the 51 incidents we reviewed were triaged and 17 of 28 were recorded accurately. The grading of the call was appropriate to the information obtained in all 51 of the relevant cases we reviewed.

Make sure that call handlers are skilled enough to identify vulnerability and warning signs of hidden vulnerability.

This recommendation was met.

Checks to ascertain if a victim was vulnerable had improved and were completed in 46 of 53 occasions we reviewed.

Make sure that repeat callers (and others in their household who may also be vulnerable) are routinely identified.

This is in progress.

The frequency of repeat victim checks hasn’t improved since our 2021 inspections. In this revisit, we found that repeat victim checks weren’t completed in 16 of 51 cases we reviewed. This compares to 16 of 75 during the 2021 audit.

Make sure that call takers give appropriate advice on preserving evidence and preventing crime.

This is in progress.

Victims weren’t given advice on crime prevention in 10 of 26 cases we reviewed, nor were they given advice regarding scene preservation in 10 of 19 cases. This is similar to our 2021 inspection findings.

Officers carry out a risk assessment for every incident of domestic abuse, including verbal arguments, without delay.

This is in progress.

Twenty-four of the cases we examined related to incidents of domestic abuse. Twenty of these cases contained a detailed risk assessment. This is an improvement from our 2021 inspection.

Opportunities to take forward evidence-led prosecutions when a victim disengages or fails to support prosecutions are maximised.

This is in progress.

The potential for evidence-led prosecutions was considered and recorded in 6 of the 27 relevant cases we reviewed.

Domestic violence prevention orders are considered in all appropriate cases.

This is in progress.

Eleven of the cases we examined were suitable for consideration of auxiliary orders, including DVPOs. But we found no consideration to apply for auxiliary orders, including DVPOs, recorded in any of these 11 cases.

Other findings

The victim service assessment also gathers evidence on the quality of investigations. On our revisit we found that the force wasn’t carrying out effective investigations and wasn’t supporting victims. The performance has deteriorated since our previous assessment.

Some investigations weren’t carried out in a timely manner, and relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry weren’t always completed. Many investigations weren’t properly reviewed by supervisors and lacked investigation plans.

Sometimes victims weren’t updated throughout investigations. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when regularly updated. A thorough investigation increases the likelihood of perpetrators being identified and a positive outcome for the victim.

The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime wasn’t being consistently applied and victim needs assessments weren’t always completed. This could lead to victims disengaging with investigations, not supporting prosecutions, and losing faith in the criminal justice process.

Conclusion

We found that the force had made progress against some of the causes of concern recommendations that we focused on in this revisit. But some of the improvements were small and there was a deterioration in some areas.

We also highlight our negative findings in relation to how the force investigates crime. These findings are an area of concern, and we will therefore, of course, consider the force’s performance in this respect as part of our ongoing monitoring of the force.

General progress is reliant on improving performance in the third cause of concern, relating to strategic planning. Only when force oversight is effective will the public receive a better service from the force. As such, Wiltshire Police remains in the engage phase of our monitoring process.

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Wiltshire Police: PEEL Cause of concern revisit letter