This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Strathclyde police make significant progress
14/10/2002
An inspection report has detailed the significant
advancement of the Strathclyde Police, particularly in
areas of IT, performance management and accountability.
The 3
rd Year Review Inspection Report published by
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) sets out
that significant progress has been made by the force,
following the recommendations and suggestions made in the
Primary Inspection in 2000.
All the 15 recommendations and 28 suggestions are now
discharged.
In particular, the report highlights the developments
made in the areas of IT, the wider use of support staff to
release officers for operational duties and enhanced
communication and consultation within the force.
The findings also show more robust accountability and
performance management arrangements have been put in place
for Divisional Commanders.
There are two areas where the force has reviewed the
suggestions made by HMIC and decided to continue with prior
approaches.
HMIC had proposed the use of support staff, rather than
police officers, to sift applications to join the service
and setting targets for the time taken to attend emergency
calls for assistance from the public.
Strathclyde Police take the view that Police Officers
add value to the initial selection process and the
introduction of response time would represent a potential
risk to road safety.
Following a review of the inspection process the HMIC
regime can be summarised as follows:
(i) Forces are subject to a regular cycle of Primary
Inspections with intermediate Review Inspections conducted
to check progress made.
(ii) After Primary and Review Inspections, reports are
presented at a public session of the Police Board meeting
and a copy posted on the HMIC website.
(iii) The balance of HMIC inspections has moved from
regular inspections of individual forces to thematic
inspections which focus on specific issues across all
forces.
The report was put before the Police Board on 11 October
2002. It is published on the HMIC website
www.scotland.gov.uk/hmic.
Hard copies can be obtained by writing to:
Strathclyde Police
173 Pitt Street
Glasgow
G2 4JS
or
HMIC
1
st Floor West
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG