Performance and Measurement

Summary

Significant force restructuring within West Yorkshire has delivered a renewed focus on Neighbourhood Policing, with an additional 300 officers deployed to work in 47 ward based Neighbourhood Policing Teams. The investigations into the disappearance of Shannon Matthews required large numbers of officers and specialist staff to work with the Neighbourhood Teams. The scale, speed, quality and efficiency of the investigation without recourse to resources from outside Forces is worthy of particular note.

The HMIC report reflects the force’s excellent work in major crime in terms of management structures, assets deployed and operational working practices and procedures. Overall crime is down by 9% - however, the slight reduction in the sanction detection rate has resulted in a review of the investigative process.

The use of stop and search powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence act has remained a key tactic for intelligence led focused activity, leading to consistent arrest rates. Around one in ten stop/searches result in an arrest and parity between the arrest rate for members of Black and Ethnic Minority communities and white communities provides reassurance on the legitimacy and validity of this approach.

Public confidence and user satisfaction remain the key measures of the force’s success. The British Crime Survey results indicate that the force’s focus is improving how the public feel about policing in the county, and the low number of people who feel very worried about crime (house crime, car crime and violence).

The local priority related to ‘public perception (measured by a local public perception survey) that the level of anti-social behaviour has increased in the last twelve months’, has been set to provide a focus for neighbourhood policing teams and partners involved in addressing low level anti-social behaviour.

The Force received grades of “meeting the standard” for each of the inspection areas covered by HMIC in 2008. Although HMIC suggested a number of areas for improvement and identified some work in progress, none of these could be considered as “significant”. The Force received no poor grades in the 2007 HMIC inspections.

The Police Authority have invested heavily in finances, staffing and other resources (most recently with the creation of the Rape Investigation Unit), to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of major crime investigations and deliver a very high quality service to victims and witnesses in major crime cases, producing major advances and achievements within this area.

Over the next 12 months, the Force intends to embed the significant changes to working practices and improve its citizen focus and public confidence ratings. Further changes will be necessary, with a focus on staff culture, as well as structures and processes. The aim is to empower staff to focus on local policing with full responsibility and accountability for service delivery.

The main drivers for further change will be the recommendations arising from the Policing Green Paper. Key challenges include developing new relationships with the public, leadership development, efficiency and productivity and performance management. This work will have to be balanced against maintaining performance in relation to serious and organised crime, responses to and control/reduction of serious violent crime, in particular, the most serious crimes involving guns and knives, local homicide prevention strategies and counter terrorism issues.