Performance and Measurement

Summary

Thames Valley Police is the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales. It has restructured to five territorial commands and 16 local policing areas, to align local operational policing with local government boundaries. It has also developed relationships with partners to respond in a multi-agency way to common themes such as anti-social behaviour, and it is looking to formalise and extend those practices, providing one-stop shops to the public.

A major achievement this year has been to implement its own change programme, known as Challenge and Change. At the same time, it developed a national quality of service commitment to identify and develop all citizen focus and quality of service issues, and it implemented the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime. The force has also improved the way in which it deals with contact management by developing its people, committing to workforce modernisation, providing high-quality IT and implementing a rigorous performance framework. It set up a force-level directing group to improve volume crime investigative processes. It has improved its overall sanction detection rate and is currently seeking to sustain improvements.

Thames Valley Police has worked hard to improve its HMIC rating from level 3 to level 4 in its protective services. A detailed internal gap analysis has been undertaken and a three-year expansion programme planned. As part of neighbourhood policing, teams will be introduced to a further 100 neighbourhoods by March 2007 and more police community support officers will be recruited.

For further information see the full baseline assessment.