By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Not enough criminals are being brought to justice as understaffed police teams face extremely high workloads, inspectors have found.
The performance of Gloucestershire Constabulary has declined in many areas since its last inspection, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has said.
Leadership and management at the force as well as the investigating of crime has been found inadequate while managing fraud, safeguarding people, responding to the public, preventing crime and developing a diverse workforce need improvement.
Officers have improved how well they use stop and search powers and inspectors have seen some improvement in how the force responds to the public.
While the force still needs to improve emergency and non-emergency call handling, as well as response times to incidents, both areas have improved since the last inspection.
But inspectors are concerned many areas of performance have deteriorated since the last inspection. HMICFRS found the constabulary hasn’t made enough progress in improving the standard of its investigations and as a result it still isn’t bringing enough offenders to justice.
And they also say the constabulary needs to improve how it protects vulnerable people, including how it manages its backlogs of safeguarding referrals and how it polices preventative orders issued to domestic violence perpetrators. The constabulary also needs the capacity to investigate fraud and provide better outcomes for the public.
Inspectors found officers in understaffed teams with extremely high workloads, often unable to take leave or time off they wanted, and the majority of personnel said they wouldn’t recommend Gloucestershire Constabulary as a great place to work.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Kathryn Stone OBE said: “I have concerns about the performance of Gloucestershire Constabulary in keeping people safe, reducing crime and giving victims an effective service.
“Progress to improve and the constabulary’s overall performance has, to an extent, been hampered by insufficient funding and resources. However, the people of Gloucestershire deserve a constabulary that can adequately respond to their needs.
“Many areas have seen a decline in performance since the last inspection and I have particular concerns about how the constabulary is managed and how well it investigates crime.
“I have given Gloucestershire Constabulary specific recommendations that set out the areas it needs to focus on, and I will continue to monitor performance.”
Temporary chief constable Maggie Blyth said she accepts the report, adding they reflect the findings she has been “very vocal on” since she took on the role two years ago.
She recognises the efforts of her officers and staff and believes they should not have such “unacceptable workloads”.
“None of what is in this report is a surprise,” she said. “We’ve known about this for some time.
“We are putting our finances right, modernising the police force with tech so our officers can do the job.
“And above all, we do answer the call when anyone rings 999. We are always there when there is an emergency.”
She also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the force’s financial challenges have had a huge impact but investment in new technology should improve the situation.
“Over the last three years, we have taken an average of £14.5m out of the organisation,” she said.
“That’s a massive amount to take out. It’s like eight per cent of the organisation we have had to take out to make ourselves financially viable.”
She said the force can now “balance the books” but “there’s a cost to that”.
“If you have to take that amount of money out, it has to come out from somewhere.”
She said other forces have been able to move quickly on IT upgrades and reiterated that the police will always be there for those who need it.
“Things are getting better,” she said. “We are now investing in the right things.
“Strong improvements have been underway all of this year.
“The inspectorate will come back again in six months and will check on our improvements.”
She said they are on track for those to be done by then.
“I want people to feel that Gloucestershire feels like a better place to come to work in,” she said.
“People are feeling that the new kit is helping and people feel it is recognised that their workload is not sustainable. But I need to make sure it feels more manageable.”
Within six months the constabulary should demonstrate it understands where officers and staff should be deployed, put processes in place to improve underperformance and implement an operating model that improves how effectively its officers and staff can deal with the operational demands.
Police and crime commissioner Chris Nelson said the constabulary has faced inflationary pressures in recent years and he believes funding is the main issue.
“In simple terms, it’s not a good report. Funding is the core reason.”
He said the force and wider “police family” leadership across the country need more funding.
“We’ve got solutions in place,” he said. “This PEEL report is a moment in time from many months ago.
“Things are improving. My big push is for more pace and momentum in terms of the speed of the improvements and trying to find solutions where we can’t find enough money, being innovative with technology that will help us address the performance shortcomings.”