Staffordshire Police’s Chief Constable says the force is working to improve the quality of investigations after it was highlighted as an area of concern by inspectors.
It comes after the force was found to be inadequate in investigating crime, managing offenders and suspects and responding to the public in 2022, following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
It was placed in special measures, with two Accelerated Causes of Concern identified. Progress to tackle the issues is being monitored and last month one area – responding to the public – was discharged.
Chief Constable Chris Noble told a performance meeting with Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams that efforts were being made to address the concerns with the quality of investigation.
“We have identified a number of ongoing challenges as well as some very good investigations.
“I have made the decision – and my deputy is leading on it – that we are going to look at over 5,000 of our investigations and see how we can improve them and give feedback to the officers.
“If there is learning we will learn and if we need to recover the service provided to victims we will do that in a very thoughtful and careful way. If we’ve missed investigative opportunities or lines of enquiry because people have been busy at the time or haven’t had the experience, we will then look to follow those and close those down.
“I don’t think there’s any force of our size undertaking internal scrutiny work like that. It is not about being negative with our staff or ‘red penning’ what they have done, it’s about identifying learning, recognising really good work in investigations and making sure we lift the skillset and experience, especially of our front-line investigators and their supervisors.
“I’m not going to waste energy on debating the whys and wherefores of the challenges we face – we’re going to focus on solving them and getting better at what we do.
“All I see across leadership and frontline staff is a real pride in what they believe they should and can be delivering. I think we’ve got a police service that’s really up for getting back to being where it was in terms of being the very top performing forces in the country.”
Chief Constable Chris Noble
Commissioner Adams said:
“That’s exactly where the public want us to be.
“A number of forces are receiving similar attention around contact and quality of investigation. I think that’s positive for the whole country. We want to see everybody working at the standards we are aspiring to.
“What has been notable in your response is it’s not defensive. You’ve said ‘where can we learn from the best?’, so we’ve had visitors, peers, other organisations in assisting, as well as the high-level energy and commitment of the team.”
Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams