Victims Of Crime In Essex Being "Let Down"

27 November 2014, 10:09 | Updated: 27 November 2014, 13:25

Victims of crime in Essex are being "let down" by police, according to a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The force here is one of 18 around the country told they "require improvement in investigating practices".

Inspectors said a "deficit in skill and experience of officers investigating crimes'' and a lack of supervision was behind weak investigations.

The report said: "Opportunities to secure a successful outcome for victims of crime are being missed as a result of failures to conduct an effective, prompt and professional investigation.''

Crimes are being investigated by officers who also provide neighbourhood policing services such as patrols, some of whom have not investigated crimes for a number of years, inspectors said.

Inspection plans - used by officers to determine what they need to do gather evidence - were of a poor standard in 18 forces, with some officers copying and pasting previous versions to new investigations.

HMIC has also launched a new website to allow the public to see at a glance how well their force is performing.

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said: "Chiefs whose forces have fallen short on the standard of crime investigation will be analysing the reasons for this and taking action to improve on this crucial area of policing.''

In response, Essex Police has said it is important to note that out of the six categories graded in the report, it has been graded as "good" in five of them.

It said: "The report considered that we are good at delivering value for money and shows strong evidence of resources being allocated to policing priorities. While the scale of future financial cuts remains significant, the force continues to achieve lower overall crime levels than elsewhere in England and Wales at the same time as being on track to achieve savings of more than £47 million over the current spending review period, with plans in place to achieve a further £9.5 million by 2015/16.

"The report highlights that we are good at reducing crime, tackling anti-social behaviour and preventing offending. It recognises that the force works well with partners and has made significant progress in improving services to victims of crime. The domestic abuse inspection found that we have taken a number of positive steps to improve our service to victims, including the introduction of a dedicated domestic abuse intelligence team."

Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said: "I am pleased that the HMIC report recognises how hard officers and staff have worked in order to reduce and prevent offending and tackle anti-social behaviour. We have also taken significant steps to identify and deal with victims of crime who are particularly vulnerable and we will continue to build on this work in the future. To score ‘good’ in five out of six graded categories demonstrates that we have worked extremely hard to provide the public with a service that is both effective and efficient.

"Against a backdrop of the financial challenge of being the second lowest cost per head of population in the country these results are extremely good. There is always more to be done and in a confident force like ours every person has the ambition to get even better at delivering a service to the people of Essex.

"The HMIC states that the public can have confidence in the way Essex Police records crime and this is a vial issue which is very good news for people who live and work in the county.

"We recognise the need to improve the quality of our investigations and like many other forces across the country, need to encourage more officers to work and train as detectives in order to help achieve this.

"We have put a training programme in place and now all student constables complete an Investigative Development Module within their probationary period, giving them skills to investigate a wide range of crimes and prepare case files to a high standard.

"The HMIC has recognised that we are making considerable changes to protect the frontline and cut crime as we continually work to reform the way we deliver local policing. We have reorganised how we deliver policing across the county, as we move more and more officers into local policing areas. This approach has helped us to improve the service we provide to victims of crime and anti-social behaviour.”