Performance and Measurement

Summary

Derbyshire’s population is directly comparable to many other forces, although an additional factor is the massive number of visitors to the county and surrounding connurbations. The Peak District is the most visited national park in Europe, attracting over 22 million visitors each year, and the major cities of Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham and Manchester are all within 20 miles of the county boundary.

The Neighbourhood Policing report highlights substantial evidence around consistent standards of implementation for safer neighbourhood teams and the work in progress around public engagement through the VISION surveys. The Force has demonstrated plans and commitment to sustaining the Neighbourhood Policing Project. Derbyshire Constabulary has made good progress in embedding the citizen focus ethos and significant progress has been made in integrating this into operational activity. Some useful directions have been mapped out, notably around how better use of information and data can be made, to make service improvements. The 2008 inspection confirmed that the force is meeting the required national standard.

The HMIC Major Crime report indicates that the service meets the required standard and reflects the development within the force intelligence, strategic and tactical processes to tackle, for example, homicide-risk and drug supply, as well as highlighting the impact of strong local partnerships.

Last year was another strong year for Derbyshire Constabulary. The force achieved all but one of the targets for reducing crime and increasing detection rates. Overall crime fell for the fifth year in succession, resulting in over 25,000 fewer victims of crime in the county than five years ago. In particular, domestic burglaries and vehicle crimes have been reduced by more than half over the last five years and are now at their lowest levels for almost 30 years.

The force also has a high overall sanction detection rate (28.9%), and one of the highest detection rates nationally for domestic burglary (25.9%), vehicle crime (18.3%), and criminal damage (17.4%). The offences brought to justice rate increased to over 30%.

The number of criminal damage offences fell by over 2,200 (11%) last year, and the number of anti-social behaviour incidents by over 8,000 (10%), demonstrating the success of the neighbourhood policing teams in tackling minor crime and disorder.

The only target not achieved was the reduction of violent crime, which rose by 3%. The detection rate for violent crime improved significantly from the previous year’s level of 45% to 48.4% but failed to reach the stretch target of 50%.

The key challenge for the future is funding the complex demands from serious and organised crime, terrorism and the need to protect vulnerable people, as well as tackling anti social behaviour, criminal damage and alcohol related crime, building on £38m in efficiency improvements delivered over the last six years. Assessment of risk and current workloads in many critical areas indicates a capacity gap and staff in a number of areas working at levels beyond those indicated by HMIC and National Policing Improvement Agency.

A Force Project, ‘Closing the Risk Gap’ has overseen the realignment of some resources to meet local protective service commitments, and this will need balancing with the delivery of neighbourhood policing. That the force now has many fewer victims of crime and more offenders being brought to justice is not always reflected in what the public believe. Another key challenge is to ensure that the response provided to all, including core demands, positively influences public confidence in local policing, victim satisfaction and public fear of crime.