His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has identified sufficient Devon & Cornwall Police performance improvements to return the force to routine inspectorate monitoring.
The force has been subject to enhanced monitoring for nearly three years after it was found to be inadequate in three of nine areas and requiring improvement in two more.
During a September 2022 inspection HMICFRS identified causes of concern, which it defines as serious, critical or systemic shortcomings in practice, policy or performance, in the quality of Devon & Cornwall Police management of sex offenders and crime data recording.
It also identified areas for improvement, aspects of force practice, policy or performance which fall short of expected standards, in the way Devon & Cornwall Police responded to the public in handling emergency and non-emergency calls, among other issues.
It moved the force into enhanced monitoring the following month, saying it needed to make “urgent improvements”.
July 2024 HMICFRS Devon & Cornwall Police performance grading summary. Source: HMICFRS.
HMICFRS closed the cause of concern relating to the management of sex offenders after Devon & Cornwall Police increased the number of officers and other staff working in this area and improved its training and record-keeping practices.
But in a follow-up assessment published last July the inspectorate escalated the force’s call-handling performance to a cause for concern and said it also now had “serious concerns” about the way the force was managing its investigations.
It found that despite some improvements in this area, the force had “understaffed and inexperienced teams investigating serious offences”, had missed investigative opportunities in 29 of 94 cases and that “unnecessary delays” had occurred in a quarter of the hundred cases which were reviewed during its inspection.
It nevertheless found that the force was good at preventing and deterring crime and antisocial behaviour and reducing vulnerability, and that its performance was adequate when protecting vulnerable people, using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully, and when building, supporting and protecting its workforce.
HMICFRS then said, in September, that improvements in how the force runs its control room, where telephone calls from the public are answered, and in its non-emergency call handling had shown sufficient signs of progress for it to close this cause of concern.
It also said that, despite some improvements in Devon & Cornwall Police crime data recording, it still needed to improve how it recorded rape offences and antisocial behaviour and still had more work to do in improving investigation standards.
Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a “charged/summonsed” outcome by Devon and Cornwall Police 2015-22. Source: HMICFRS.
In last week’s announcement that it was returning Devon & Cornwall Police to routine monitoring, HMICFRS said it had since identified further improvements in force crime recording, investigations management and non-emergency call handling.
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke said that the force had since made “good progress” and that the the inspectorate had also found improvements in how it understands and oversees its performance.
He nevertheless said that “there is still work to do”, adding that Devon & Cornwall Police “needs to demonstrate further improvements” before the inspectorate can close the two remaining causes of concern: its crime recording standards and the quality of its investigations.
However he said he had been “reassured by the plans that the force has put in place to continue making improvements” and had therefore returned it to routine monitoring.
Devon & Cornwall Police welcomed the HMICFRS decision, which was announced the week after its suspended deputy chief constable Jim Colwell received an 18-month misconduct warning as he returned to full duties and also-suspended chief constable Will Kerr announced his early retirement.
Interim chief constable James Vaughan, the force’s third chief constable in eighteen months, said: “Getting to this point has not been easy. The concerns raised by HMICFRS were serious and rightly deserved immediate and sustained actions.
“We will not be complacent and we recognise that we still have work to do in crime recording and our investigation standards to ensure that more offenders are brought to justice and victims receive the service they rightly deserve.”
