Serious concerns regarding Lincolnshire Police performance levels, says His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services
There are serious concerns about the performance of Lincolnshire Police - particularly in how it investigates crime and how quickly it responds to incidents - the police inspectorate has said.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Lincolnshire Police’s performance across eight areas of policing.
It found the force ‘requires improvement’ in four areas and is ‘inadequate’ in four areas.
In response, Chief Constable Paul Gibson highlighted the force’s fnding discrepancy and said his team ‘need to be given a fair chance to invest and improve services’.
HMICFRS found the standards of investigations had deteriorated since its previous inspection.
The force needs to improve how it allocates, supervises and carries out investigations to make sure victims are getting the support they need.
They also raised concerns that the force isn’t effectively managing registered sexual offenders and needs to have a greater understanding of the risk and make sure there is appropriate capacity and capability.
Inspectors said the force has made several improvements in the force control room, including increasing staffing levels and improving training and its systems.
However, despite being raised in its previous inspection, the force still isn’t attending incidents as quickly as it should or meeting its own targets.
The inspectorate also said that the force isn’t aligning its resources effectively to meet its demand, which is a major contributor to the issues it faces.
The force needs to understand its demand better and have an operating model to manage this effectively and efficiently.
Following this inspection which took place last year, the inspectorate moved Lincolnshire Police into an enhanced level of monitoring in December.
This process provides additional scrutiny and support from across the policing sector to help the force make improvements.
Since then, the force has developed improvement plans and HMICFRS is working closely with Lincolnshire Police to focus on improvement.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said: “I have serious concerns about Lincolnshire Police’s performance in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service, particularly on how well the force investigates crime and how quickly it attends incidents following calls to service.
“Since our previous inspection, investigation standards have deteriorated. The force needs to improve its management of investigations to achieve better outcomes for victims of crime.”
Lincolnshire Police is one of the lowest funded forces in the country.
The Lincolnshire branch of the Police Federation recently called for an end to ‘outdated and deeply flawed’ funding formula, while in March Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones won the right to a legal fight over the money received.
However, Mr Wilsher said more could still be done.
“Lincolnshire Police receives one of the lowest levels of central funding in relation to its population in comparison to other forces in England and Wales,” he added.
“This has created a growing gap between the force income and expenditure, which has caused a budget deficit. But improvements to processes can still be made despite the budget pressures.
“While the force had a saving plan, this didn’t address several areas of inefficiency. These inefficiencies are increasing its operating costs and worsening its budget deficit.
“This growing resource gap put pressure on the force’s ability to effectively manage its demand and provide a level of service which the public would expect.
“The force has undertaken a priority-based budget process to start to address these inefficiencies.
“Due to these concerns, I am in regular contact with the chief constable and have given Lincolnshire Police specific recommendations that set out the areas it needs to focus on.
“We will continue to work closely with the force to monitor its progress against these important and necessary changes.”
Speaking as the report was published today, Lincolnshire Police’s Chief Constable Paul Gibson said he accepts ‘the majority of the findings within the report’ and has been ‘working closely with HMICFRS’ since being made aware of the findings.
However, he highlighted the force’s funding discrepancy.
“Lincolnshire’s residents and visitors deserve a fairer deal regarding the policing they receive. Lincolnshire Police is a good organisation with so many proud people dedicated to public service,” he added.
“We just need to be given a fair chance to invest and improve services that is equitable to other forces, to allow us to deliver good services that the public, and HMICFRS, quite rightly expect.
“By continuing to work with the Inspectorate, and other external stakeholders, I will ensure we keep delivering any further changes that will be of benefit to our communities.”
He also praised the work being doen by the force, adding: “Nationally, we charge and summons to court more people as a proportion than many other police forces across the country; we achieve the most rape convictions of all forces, which speaks volumes about our investigations and file quality; we are first nationally for the speed with which we answer our 999 calls; we also come top for finalising a case at a magistrates’ first hearing, which means swifter outcomes for victims and their loved ones; are second in the country for both our hate crime and domestic abuse conviction rates; and fourth nationally for our 101 wait times.
“We prioritise our actions to detain wanted suspects based on threat, risk, and harm, and we have been recognised by the inspection team for doing a good job of investigating the most serious crimes, which include violent assaults.”
Chief Constable Gibson said the force have introduced a bespoke programme of work to address some of the areas of policing that that have been highlighted in the report, including a new unit to improve investigations, plus the introducion of training and processes to address attendance delays.
