Staffordshire Police told to improve as national report raises alarm over UK forces

The findings prompted an official watchdog to raise the alarm over the "potentially perilous" state of British policing.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) also issued an unprecedented warning that a shortage of detectives and investigators amounts to a "national crisis".

Staffordshire Police was one of 13 forces that was listed as requiring improvement, while West Midlands Police and West Mercia Police were rated 'good'.

HMIC graded the forces after evaluating them in four areas: how effective is the force at preventing crime, anti-social behaviour?; how effective is the force at investigating crime and managing offenders?; how effective is the force at protecting vulnerable people and supporting victims?; how effective is the force at tackling serious and organised crime?

Staffordshire Police rated 'good' in the first area but 'requires improvement' in the other three.

Nationally, inspectors said the public is being left at unacceptable risk as a minority of forces artificially suppress demand.

They uncovered evidence of emergency calls being downgraded in order to justify a slower response and failings in responding to vulnerable victims.

Fewer arrests were made, a large number of crimes were effectively "written off", suspects were not always pursued and inexperienced officers were left to carry out complex investigations, the review found.

HMI Zoe Billingham stopped short of saying the service was in crisis, but warned: "We are leading to a very serious conclusion regarding the potentially perilous state of British policing in this report.

"Over the last few years, HMIC has said consistently that police forces were managing well in increasingly difficult circumstances.

"Nonetheless, today, I'm raising a red flag to warn forces of the consequences of what is, to all intents and purposes, an unconscious form of rationing of police services."

The wide-ranging report found:

Initial risk assessments made by call handlers being downgraded because of a lack of available officers to respond immediately

A lack of focus directed to apprehending wanted individuals, with the details of 67,000 suspects not placed on the police national computer (PNC)

As of August there were 45,960 wanted suspects on the database, including those being sought for offences including terrorism, murder and rape

In too many cases forces are taking "insufficient action" to actively track down wanted suspects once their details have been circulated on the PNC

Limited capacity within many forces to manage the risk posed by the most dangerous offenders

Neighbourhood policing - described as "the bedrock" of the service - continues to be eroded

Gangs of violent and dangerous criminals were not formally classified.

HMIC said it was also warning for the first time of a national crisis in the shortage of detectives and investigators in many forces.

This is leading to excessive workloads and complex investigations being led by those who lack appropriate experience. In one instance inspectors saw a uniformed officer investigating rape.

The report highlighted the extent to which forces are not taking inquiries further because the victim does not support police action.

In some areas, more than one in five cases are not investigated fully for this reason and the issue is particularly acute for domestic abuse.

HMIC said this is "likely to mean that far too many perpetrators of extremely harmful domestic abuse crimes are not being brought to justice and victims are being failed by the police".

In response Nick Baker, Deputy Chief Constable said: “I am pleased that HMIC has recognised the high quality of our work in several areas, particularly the work officers and staff do to prevent crime, tackle anti-social behaviour and keep people safe.

“Whilst I am disappointed with the overall grade, it is encouraging to see that Inspectorate have acknowledged the significant improvements we have made, to move our force forward. HMIC have identified a number of areas where the force needs to improve, including how we investigate crime, how we deal with missing persons and how we tackle organised crime. We have plans in place to address these areas.

“We have recorded a number of successes in the last year. For example, we prosecute proportionately more offenders than many other forces. In areas where HMIC previously raised concerns over the way we support our most vulnerable victims, we have now been praised for ‘significant improvements’, albeit more can and is being done.

“There are some very positive findings in this report and we will continue to work hard to ensure we consistently improve and deliver the best possible service to the communities of Staffordshire.”

While Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said he 'accepted' the rating he criticised the HMIC for being 'inconsistent'.

He said: "This is a mixed picture, both for police performance in Staffordshire and the consistency of HMIC’s approach to inspection on the ground.

"The latter is of particular worry, as inspections by them play a critical part in assisting PCCs across the country in ensuring police services perform for local people.

"Apart from 52 pages of factual inaccuracies acknowledged by HMIC inspectors, there appears to be inconsistency in approach between different inspection teams in different geographical areas and departures from stated national guidance in others.

"I have raised concerns previously where HMIC said that Staffordshire Police were ‘outstanding’ in community engagement when the facts were clear, and supported by public feedback, that the force fell well below that assessment and needed to improve.

"More recently after initially assessing the police here as compliant in only 1 of 5 criteria around Stop and Search procedure, after looking at the same evidence again changed it to 5 out of 5 compliant.

"Last month HMIC changed the already published ‘requires improvement’ in crime recording to ‘good’ just short of ‘outstanding’.

"There are significant improvements needed in some of the work Staffordshire Police do. I want to use assessments by HMIC to help focus efforts to ensure improvements happen. Inconsistencies in approach and having to revisit assessments after publication, is unhelpful in achieving that.

"HMIC must be more consistent in approach both locally and force to force for their information to be truly useful in assisting PCCs. I’m writing to the Home Office accordingly."

The HMIC examined the effectiveness of forces in England and Wales, and said that most provide a largely good service in keeping people safe and preventing crime.

Overall, one force was judged to be "outstanding", 28 forces were "good", 13 "require improvement" and one was rated "inadequate".