Performance and Measurement

Summary

Humberside Police serves a population of almost 900,000 residents. In June 2007 Humberside experienced the worst flooding for 150 years, putting enormous pressure on all the emergency services, especially the police, when headquarters and 30% of the custody facilities had to be evacuated. Some 200 HQ staff had to be relocated for eight months. The flooding and the aftermath were a considerable test of the force’s ability to cope with natural disaster while coordinating the response of all emergency services and other agencies. This was achieved whilst continuing to maintain performance improvements and is testimony to the morale, commitment and leadership at all levels in the organisation.

There were no poor grades identified by HMIC in the 2006/07 inspections. All areas for improvement from 2006/07 inspections are being addressed and many, including all four recommendations, have been satisfactorily concluded. In January 2008, an inspection of how Humberside police investigate and prevent major crime identified that the force achieved the necessary national standard.

Despite the challenges faced by the force during 2007/08, performance continued to improve with reductions in many areas, notably a 14% reduction in all recorded crime compared to 9% nationally. Recorded domestic burglaries were down 17.5%, vehicle theft down 25.5% and violence down 18.7%. This has been accompanied by an improvement in the overall sanction detection rate for all crime to 31%.

Performance against local priorities was notable for achieving the targets set locally for reducing the number of criminal damage offences (24.3 per 1,000 population), answering non emergency calls within 30 seconds (77.3%) and increasing the time spent outside the police station by police community support officers (77.0%). The minimum local target for the number of anti-social behaviour incidents (58.4 per 1,000 population) was not achieved despite a reduction in this area to 58.7 per 1,000 population.

There is now a strong performance culture across the organisation, supported by a robust and challenging framework of performance meetings at all levels. The emphasis is put on reporting atypical performance and the dissemination of good practice. Early intervention is now commonplace. The force has a number of major projects underway including business and workforce modernisation, protective services and a citizen focus programme of work. All are seen as critical to the future success of the force, and will ultimately lead to improved service delivery, efficiency gains and better equip the organisation to meet future demands.

The key challenge for the organisation is to improve the levels of public confidence and victim satisfaction. The force has acknowledged its weakness in this area and has already commenced significant local survey work to better understand what factors impact on both these key areas. The citizen focus project is a significant programme of work designed to bring about cultural change within the organisation and deliver an outstanding customer focused service to the people of Humberside.