Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez has launched a monthly “Commissioner’s Accountability Board” which she says will ensure Devon & Cornwall Police delivers an “effective and efficient police service”.
The board is attended by interim chief constable James Vaughan and other senior police officers and staff from both Devon & Cornwall Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.
It meets in private, with press and public excluded, to “discuss a range of topics relating to key police performance indicators”. Agendas for each meeting are not published until several weeks after the meeting has taken place and minutes are not published at all.
Instead Alison Hernandez, who chairs the board, issues a brief “statement of assurance” based on her judgement of how assured she is about current police performance and the quality of any performance improvement plans.
Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez and interim Devon & Cornwall Police Chief Constable James Vaughan. Photo: Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
At its inaugural meeting in April the board discussed the force’s handling of complaints, which the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office had said in a statutory report earlier that month was “not good enough by a long way”.
The Police and Crime Commissioner deemed this area “not assured” but added that the force’s improvement plan “gave confidence that effective improvements will be made, with some evidence apparent that the complaint backlog is starting to reduce”.
Also discussed, and judged “part assured” by Alison Hernandez, was Devon & Cornwall Police’s performance in relation to call-handling, crime data recording and investigations.
In 2022 the force was placed in enhanced monitoring by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which required the urgent production of an improvement plan and regular meetings with HMICFRS inspectors.
Last July the inspectorate issued another report assessing Devon & Cornwall Police performance in eight areas, grading it as good in one, adequate in three, requiring improvement in two and inadequate in two more. It said it had “serious concerns” over the force’s investigations management.
Three months later the inspectorate closed three causes of concern but said the force still needed to improve how it recorded rape offences and antisocial behaviour.
July 2024 HMICFRS Devon & Cornwall Police performance grading summary. Source: HMICFRS.
In December last year James Vaughan became the force’s third chief constable in eighteen months when he was appointed as interim chief constable. He was recruited following the suspension of acting chief constable Jim Colwell the previous month.
Jim Colwell had been appointed in July to lead Devon & Cornwall Police on a temporary basis after chief constable Will Kerr was suspended after just seven months in post.
An investigation into allegations of sexual offences, which he denied, had been under way for several months by the time of his suspension. It was dropped in April this year.
In May, the Independent Office for Police Conduct confirmed that its investigation into allegations against Jim Colwell had concluded.
It found that he had “no case to answer” in respect of two allegations, but in respect of a third he will face a misconduct meeting arranged by the chief constable of Essex Police, who has been delegated to determine the matter.
Both Will Kerr and Jim Colwell remain suspended with pay while investigations continue.
In February this year, the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office confirmed that the cost of of paying the three chief constables employed by Devon & Cornwall Police was £63,913 per month, equating to £767,000 a year, including allowances and pension costs.
Jim Colwell was subsequently returned to his previous rank of deputy chief constable while suspended, slightly reducing the wage bill.
The Police and Crime Commissioner is herself scrutinised by Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel which is comprised of councillors from across the region and meets quarterly to “support and challenge” the Police and Crime Commissioner.
In July last year the panel voted against the appointment of Mark Kingscote, a former Torbay Council colleague of Alison Hernandez, to the newly-created role of Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner.
Shortly after the meeting Alison Hernandez issued a press release saying that she had rejected the panel’s recommendation and would appoint Mark Kingscote anyway.
Two days before the panel met in November to consider a motion that said her actions had “brought the office of the commissioner into disrepute by showing total disrespect for this panel and the decision it made”, she apologised for making her announcement without first notifying the panel.
The motion was withdrawn at the meeting following her apology.
Mark Kingscote subsequently resigned just five months after his appointment.
