Performance and Measurement

Summary

Wiltshire Police is a mainly rural force, covering an area of some 1,346 square miles and serving a resident population of 600,000 people. The force includes the expanding conurbation of Swindon, the historic city of Salisbury and many market towns and villages. The M4 motorway runs through the north of the county and the busy A303 crosses to its south. The county features a number of sites of historic interest, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. The area’s considerable growth in terms of both population and business activity has the potential to place increased demands on the force infrastructure. In order to ensure the most efficient use of its resources, the force has implemented a reorganisation, reducing from three divisions to two, adopting new IT systems and focusing more staff on public protection, major crime and serious and organised crime. At the same time, and in line with all forces, it has continued to strengthen its delivery of local services within the Neighbourhood Policing model.

In its 2007 inspection, HMIC assessed force performance in respect of Neighbourhood Policing, Performance Management and Protecting Vulnerable People, which includes child abuse, domestic violence, public protection and missing persons. The inspection found that the force has made progress with Neighbourhood Policing and is in the process of revising its performance management structures and procedures. It is expected that these changes will bear fruit in the coming year. The force has brought together its public protection staff within a newly formed public protection department, led by a dedicated Superintendent. Again, these changes can be expected to further strengthen the force’s service delivery in these important areas.

The force identified a number of local priorities for 2006/07. It set a target for detections of violent crime of 67.1% but achieved only 51.9%. For racially aggravated crime, it achieved a 35.6% detection rate against a target of 45.9%. It successfully brought to justice 105 Class A drug supply offences, and it achieved its target to detect 11.5% of thefts from vehicles.

The HMIC inspection report in 2006 drew attention to the need for improvements in Neighbourhood Policing, Protecting Vulnerable People, serious and organised crime, and managing critical incidents and major crime. Action plans were put in place and have now been implemented; this has led to the force providing an improved service in all these areas.

The force has established a major incident team to address major crime more effectively. Huge effort has been expended in enhancing and accelerating the delivery of Neighbourhood Policing, and the establishment of the public protection department has strengthened service provision in this high-risk business area.

The key challenges for the force in the future will be to drive up performance in volume crime. As it has focused on the areas described above, there has been deterioration in its volume crime performance; the force is now working hard to address this. The force is reaping the benefits of the significant changes it has made and is continuing to deliver its ambitious change programme, centred on remote and mobile working, workforce modernisation and regional collaboration.