Staffordshire Police has been told to improve the way it tackles serious and organised crime.
Inspectors say the force needs more dedicated officers for dealing with the issue , and have also raised concerns over the quality of its plans.
But His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) praised Staffordshire Police for its understanding of its serious and organised crime (SOC) performance, such as through the use of an ‘innovative’ performance framework dashboard.
HMICFRS gave the force an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’ following its inspection last summer – and senior officers say they are already working to address the concerns raised.
According to the report on Staffordshire Police, neighbourhood policing officers who lead the local response to SOC lack “proactive resources” and are often pulled way into response roles, and so “rarely have time to dedicate to tackling SOC”.
And while the force has a small team of financial investigators, they are limited to carrying out reactive investigations, meaning opportunities to tackle criminal finance are being missed.
Staffordshire Police has recruited more financial investigators – and since the inspection it has said it plans to invest in additional teams.
The inspectors said that Staffordshire Police was “focused on understanding its serious and organised crime performance”.
Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs said:
“The inspection has identified we have some clear gaps around our ability to effectively tackle SOC, but it also recognises we understand this and have plans in place and underway to address some of these issues.
“They also acknowledged our clear aspiration to improve our work in this area through a measured approach and that we know our operating model needs to be a sustainable one.
“We are working on this, some remedial work has been done since the inspection and plans for the longer term work is ongoing.
“We are committed to reducing the harm caused by serious and organised crime and protecting those vulnerable to this threat.”
Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs
