Quarter 4 Performance – 2023/24
Date: 20th May
Chair: John Campion
Attendance
- John Campion – Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)
- Marc Bayliss – Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner (DPCC)
- Nicola Lowery – Policy Officer (NL)
- Charity Pearce – Policy Officer (CP)
- Alexandra Knight – Policy & Commissioning Intern (AK)
- Alex Murray – T/Chief Constable (T/CC)
- Richard Cooper – T/Deputy Chief Constable (T/DCC)
1. Review of Action Tracker
Actions were reviewed and progressed as per the action tracker. A new timescale was agreed for an outstanding action and several actions were closed.
2. Chief Constable Assessment on Quarterly Performance
Safer West Mercia Plan and Budget Priorities
The T/CC gave an overview of the Q4 23/24 (January – March 2023) Quarterly Performance Report as set out below. The PCC asked that the T/CC’s presentation focus on the following local priorities:
999 call handling
Record increase in demand seen at the start of 23/24 resulted in a reduction in performance against the 10 second target. Previously this has been explained through technical reasons, however, the T/CC is now moving away from this and believes there are opportunities for marginal gains. One example is by reducing the length of the automated message when a 999 call is transferred from BT through to the force.
Staffing in the Control Centre is also being reviewed. The PCC was interested in how longer-term changes can be implemented to improve performance including whether the force were undertaking testing the public experience when making a call to the force in an emergency.
West Mercia perform poorly compared to other forces nationally. Some engagement has taken place with other well performing forces to understand where improvements can be made.
The PCC raised concerns that call handling performance will be a focus of the upcoming HMICFRS PEEL inspection. He sought reassurance that the right leadership was in place in the OCC to drive change. The CC said he was seeking reassurance around staffing levels at peak times.
ACTION: Update to the July WMGB meeting to include update on recruitment into Public Contact Centre.
Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI)
There has been a reduction in those fatally injured on roads in West Mercia since June 2022. However, a small increase has been seen more recently. West Mercia sees more recreational road users than other force areas specifically in Shropshire.
The three E approach (Education, Enforcement and Engineering) is widely used in tackling road safety issues. The PCC was interested in better understanding how the force work with partners particularly around the third E, Engineering. The force has recently completed a large piece of analysis focussed on motorcyclists as they are overrepresented in fatalities, with an engagement plan to support. Although, there is more to do to work with highway partners at a strategic level.
ACTION: Force to share analysis and engagement plan with OPCC.
ACTION: OPCC to review force analysis and use to support future commissioning.
The PCC was also interested in exploring how officers when stopping motorcyclists for offences offer interventions to prevent future offending rather than just enforcement activity
Domestic Abuse Arrest rates
Domestic Abuse arrest rates sit at 33% across West Mercia, however, fluctuate between 24% and 44% in the different policing area. The T/CC said that overall levels are as expected but that the force are focussed on trying to improve the disparity, particularly in North Worcestershire.
In 23/24, there was a force wide target to improve arrest rates by 5% and the force achieved 4%.
The PCC sought reassurance that performance was able to be sustained at the right level. This includes scrutiny of the end of shift briefings with not every incident requiring an arrest.
There was a discussion around the effects of deprivation on the severity of DA incidents and impact on arrest. Evidence shows that arrest is a more effective tactic for those with something to lose such as social respectability and therefore lead to behaviour change.
Any other performance areas as determined by the Chief Constable
Victim satisfaction
Levels of burglary, hate and domestic abuse satisfaction meet force targets. However, the annual change for violent crime is concerning and not where the force wants to be, despite a small uptick in performance. It isn’t clear what has driven the recent improvement, but this may be due to a general focus on victim engagement.
General crime overview
There has been a notable increase in action taken across a number of crime types with a 3% increase seen for total recorded crime. The T/CC still expects more action to be taken and is hopeful that a number of recent role changes will continue to drive improvements.
To ensure this remains the focus for the force the T/CC believes the management information available needs to improve with some easy wins still to be achieved.
The PCC was concerned that the quarterly performance product shows disparity across local policing areas whilst noting that some of the performance displayed was driven by the Contact Resolution Centre (CRC). The T/CC said the CRC has its own delivery group to review data with additional scrutiny at the Force Delivery Group. Good behaviour has been seen from CRC staff searching for offender behaviour linking many investigations.
The DPCC noted the overarching reduction in crime in 23/24 seen both locally and nationally and asked if there was any rationale for this. Locally, the success in part can be attributed to local problem-solving plans, driving activity once identified. Upcoming work linked to hotspot/focussed deterrence work should continue to drive the reduction. Nationally, when comparing current crime levels to 19/20, pre covid, the 25-year trend in reducing crime levels continues to be seen.
The T/CC said the areas of focus over the next 12 months are:
• 999
• 101
• Victim Services Assessment
• Reducing crime
• Increasing action taken
3. National priorities
The force is in the process of developing a Homicide problem profile, near miss document and corresponding delivery plan, both will be shared with partners to facilitate joint working.
The T/CC highlighted a number of initiatives that are working to reduce serious violence offences, including:
- Op Sceptre; and.
- The introduction of El Savi in a Telford nightclub requiring personal details of patrons before entering.
The force has taken part in a number of national campaigns, the PCC was interested in how the force communicate activity that takes place outside of those campaign windows.
Behaviour detection officers (BDO) officers identify abnormal behaviour displayed by individuals with criminal intent, allowing the force to proactively intervene. The PCC wanted to better understand how the effectiveness of their role is reviewed to evidence good practice. Much of their work is designed to tackle VAWG in the nighttime economy and is hard to attribute a reduction in offences directly to their work.
The T/CC is confident county lines disruption activity is good in Shropshire. HMICFRS criticise the force for their focus mainly on pursuing criminals and not the other P’s (Prevent, Protect, Prepare). The volume of recorded disruption activity has fallen for a number of quarters. The T/DCC said the force have previously focussed on increasing their numbers but an increase in disruption volume alone doesn’t necessarily equate to effectively impacting criminal activity. A new system has been implemented to measure disruptions moving forward.
There has been a small improvement in action taken for residential burglary offences but still not where the force wants to be particularly when linked to car key burglary.
The PCC wants to better understand how effective his investment focussed on prevention has been. The T/DCC said whilst cause and effect can’t be evidenced the force is more crime and offender focussed now as shown through crime volumes reducing and action taken increasing.
Vehicle offences see low levels of action taken despite a lot of focus. Whilst car key burglaries are still a threat, new technology is enabling offenders to undertake keyless thefts. Small trends have been identified however, it isn’t clear what the full profile looks like.
North Worcestershire see a higher volume of vehicle offences due to bordering the West Midlands force area. The PCC was interested in understanding if there was a role for him to play in assisting prevention activity. Car manufacturers have designed out weak points over many years with the T/CC clear that police activity should focus on catching and convicting offenders.
4. Quarterly HMICFRS Update
The focus of this update was on the forces work to prepare for the upcoming PEEL inspection.
The T/CC recently visited another force who have been inspected with some positive feedback and have adopted the correct ways of working. A key takeaway was to ensure absolute grip across all key areas inspected. There needs to be alignment between the Chief Officer direction and the actual reality on the ground.
Extra governance has been put in place at Chief Officer level on a regular basis with the focus on the Assistant Chief Constables to get better at embedding the direction in the force. Officers responsible for certain elements of the questions are being brought together in June to make sure there is grip.
The PCC sought reassurance on where data currently shows deficiencies. This data hasn’t yet been pulled together but as part of the inspection the Chief Officers give HMICFRS a strategic presentation across questions areas and part of this will show where gaps are.
The PCC expressed concerns that he had previously received reassurance on the work to prepare for the SOC HMICFRS inspection and the force had a poor grading.
The T/CC said that he currently has conflicted views, the organisation can generally be negative about performance and activity without sometimes acknowledging all the good work that takes place.
There are a couple of actions from previous inspections that haven’t yet been signed off, linked to partnership data. The T/CC is not reassured that data sharing arrangements are in place and if they are, whether they are acted upon. As part of the PEEL preparation governance, a deep dive into partnership data will be undertaken.
An Investigation Quality Sergeant sits in each of the policing areas to conduct audit activity of cases. Performance shows North Worcestershire and Telford are the worst performing however, this may be down to those officers being more stringent in their activity. Therefore, the force are moving the IQ officers around to conduct an audit in a different LPA to provide a fresh view.
The PCC offered his support in helping the force prepare. The T/CC highlighted previous HMIC criticism of force analytical capability and posed whether any funding is available to support this. This will be discussed at WMGB.
5. Summary of Actions Arising
CP provided a summary of actions as set out above in bold.
6. AOB
N/A
7. Confirmation of next meeting type/date/time/venue:
Thematic – Serious and Organised Crime
23.07.2024 – Allsopp Room
