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Partners in Crime - Solving and Reassuring
A Thematic Inspection of Crime Management in Scotland

chapter 1: introduction

1.1 'I'll have someone attend as soon as possible'

Traditionally the response heard by those contacting the police to report a crime or incident. The opening gambit in a process in which the staff member receiving the call was also directly responsible for ensuring the deployment of a police officer to the scene to conduct an initial assessment. In this process, the police 'controller' aimed to manage a 'queue' of calls and patrol officers attempted to work through their list of 'outstanding incidents', trying where possible to prioritise them appropriately. But does this accurately describe how the Scottish Police Service of today deals with calls for service from its public?

This is a study about crime management; the process which runs from the time when the police become aware of an incident or crime, to the recording of a court, or other, disposal. It is a complex process with several alternative routes and the involvement of a number of external agencies.

1.2 Stage I - Deciding to Report

The process actually starts a stage earlier than this first contact with the police; at the point where a member of the public has to decide whether or not a situation should be reported to the police. This is not just an issue of the seriousness of the incident, it might also relate to the level of confidence the reporter has that the police service will do something constructive to deal with the situation.

There has always been a gulf between the level of crime as indicated by the British and Scottish Crime Surveys and that appearing in official police crime statistics. The magnitude of the level of 'unrecorded crime' is in the region of 50%; the 2000 Scottish Crime Survey ¹ gave the total level of crime as 840,000 and police recorded crime statistics for the same period showed 423,172 (this issue is examined more fully in para 5.2). It also showed that 1 in 5 people had been the victim of one crime covered by the survey in that year with 1 in 17 having been victims on two or more occasions

Consequently changes in the level of recorded crime rates may be due, in part, to fluctuations in the willingness of the public to report some types of (mostly minor) crimes. The corollary of this of course is that proactive measures designed to reassure the public may have the counter-intuitive effect of leading to significant increases in the levels of recorded crime, as police statistics eat into unrecorded crime.

1.3 Additional Influences

This study takes place at a time when the Scottish Police Service is in the process of moving to a revised crime recording standard in which the perception of the victim will be more influential in the assessment of whether or not a crime record will be created. This is explained more fully in Chapter 2 (paragraph 2.7). There have also been, in recent times, efforts to implement a National Intelligence Model, to handle, sort and grade the information coming in to the police from various sources and use the derived intelligence to inform a Problem Solving Policing approach to resource deployment.

1.4 Relationship Between Incidents and Crimes

When reports are received, the next variable in the relationship between actual and recorded crime relates to the policies or procedures within forces leading to decisions as to which of the incidents coming to their notice actually constitutes a crime and should be recorded as such.

Accordingly this Report will address 'Incident Management' as well as Crime Management, examining the way such classification decisions are made, and importantly how they are recorded and audited.

1.5 Incidents, Crime and Police Resource Deployment

Against a background of these factors and influences, forces are endeavouring, at this initial report stage, to provide a structured assessment process to determine what type of police response is appropriate to deal with a particular incident. With the resource constraints which apply to policing today, the traditional approach of taking minimal details and sending an expensive police resource to assess the situation is not viable, perhaps with the exception of quite rural areas with low crime the overwhelming proportion of which is local in nature.

The crime management system is now an integral part of problem solving as well as being the bureaucracy which processes cases to the Procurator Fiscal for prosecution. It is essential that public confidence in the police ensures that all relevant situations are drawn to their attention - reducing the gap between actual and recorded crime statistics, and rather than simply dispatch a police officer, there is an assessment mechanism that looks at what police response is appropriate to the situation. This may well take the form of rapid uniformed police attendance or it might become the stimulus for multi-agency problem solving, with a plethora of graded responses in between.

In recent years, all forces in Scotland have reviewed how crime scene attendance and subsequent investigation can best be managed. Forces have arrived at different conclusions, depending on a variety of factors, not least of which is their perception of public expectation. With the decision to move to a more comprehensive system of crime recording in 2004, forces are re-assessing how they record crime under the current system. Accordingly this is a dynamic situation; implementation of the National Intelligence Model is rolling out in all Forces although they are at different levels of maturity in this, and the process for the transition to a new crime recording standard has effectively begun.

1.6 Scotland's Falling Crime and Increased Detections

The following graph shows how recorded crime in Scotland has reduced over the last decade. This trend is echoed in the most recent Scottish Crime Survey ², which shows a 20% reduction in 'survey' crime levels between 1992 with 1999/2000. Importantly, the graph demonstrates that, despite these reductions, the Police service in Scotland appears to be solving more crime today than ever before.

However, when England and Wales moved to a revised crime recording standard along similar terms to that envisaged for Scotland, it resulted in a substantial rise in overall crime levels as, generally very minor, additional incidents came to be included in the crime statistics. It is anticipated that this effect will be mirrored in Scotland as the revised standard comes into play.

Fig 1: Recorded Crime (Groups 1-5) and Detection Rates in Scotland: 1993-2002/03³

1.7 The Purpose of Crime Management

The question 'What is the purpose of crime management?' is a simple one. The answer less so. In essence, it is a managerial process for dealing with reported crime and progressing the enquiry to a conclusion. But public reassurance, and consequently aspects of quality of life, rely on a confidence that the police are able to manage crime properly: and individual victims have to feel that they are being treated fairly, with the crime they suffered being investigated professionally. Crime management, therefore, is not just about solving the case, it also includes reassuring individual victims and contributing to a general sense of public reassurance.

In the HMIC Thematic Report on police visibility and public reassurance ⁴, it is observed:

'A visible police presence on the streets is an important aspect of an integrated approach to police deployment, but the prioritisation given to the various aspects of police work must be balanced against need rather than simple demand.'

Crime Management is a backroom process but its contribution to police effectiveness should not be underestimated - it is an important aspect of how public confidence in the police is developed, and from that confidence flows reassurance and an enhanced quality of life. The police have a statutory obligation to endeavour to detect those who have committed crimes or offences but the importance of providing appropriate support and reassurance to victims and witnesses is quite properly occupying a more central focus within the Criminal Justice system. This aspect is examined in more detail in Chapter 5 (Para 5.1)

In light of this, the following issues need to be addressed:

• Are forces fully aware of the potential for solving and reassuring to be in competition for resources, rather than complimentary?
• Do systems and processes exist to alleviate any tensions that this might generate?
• Do officers and support staff fully understand their role and its contribution to the wider aspects of policing?

Consideration also has to be given to the impact which streamlining crime management processes might have on public perceptions in relation to reassurance. Will the public see a lean and efficient process of managing crime as being mechanistic and depersonalised; with efficiency gains having to be off-set against a reduction in the perceived quality of the service being delivered?

1.8 Focus on Volume Crime

To encompass all the relevant issues within the timescale of the study, it was decided this inspection would focus upon those crimes which, due to their volume, will affect a larger number of people. Housebreaking (to dwelling houses and commercial properties) and theft of, or from, motor vehicles were chosen for specific in-depth study.

However, the nature of these crimes and how they are dealt with encompasses all the key generic elements in the crime management process, including:

• Reporting & Recording of Crime
• Investigation, including Intelligence & Forensic Support
• The role of Information Technology
• Victims issues
• Criminal Justice Issues

1.9 Methodology

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has a statutory duty to report to Scottish Ministers on the effectiveness and efficiency of the Scottish Police Service. It does this through an Inspection programme, which incorporates primary and review inspections of forces, and by conducting a series of thematic inspections on areas of particular interest or concern.

The main objective of thematic inspections, is to establish the state of current practice within the Scottish Police Service by consulting with various stakeholders and then, taking account of developments and good practice in other police forces or other organisations, provide comment and recommendations.

HMIC carried out a previous thematic inspection on crime management in 1995 ⁵, but since then there have been significant advances in various fields in particular:

• Information Technology
• Forensic Support
• Implementation of the National Intelligence Model

1.10 Related HMIC Studies

This Inspection, which was undertaken between January and June 2003, forms part of a suite of studies which collectively aim to provide a body of informed recommendations to facilitate continuous service improvement. It follows on from 'Narrowing the Gap' ⁶ which was published in 2002, and which, when addressing the need for an organisational balance between 'visibility policing' and the other demands which must be met by forces, suggested that meeting the expectations of the public would involve closer forms of engagement between them and the police, to help forces to use their resources to tackle problems in an agreed order of priority. That report focussed on strategic issues and heralded a series of more specific but related studies.

Already published in 2003 are reports on family liaison arrangements ⁷ and on race relations ⁸, undertaken in response to Dr Jandoo's report ⁹ into the death of Surjit Singh Chhokar. In these it is made clear that the criminal justice system in Scotland is moving towards a much more victim centred focus (which is examined in more depth in Chapter 5 Para 5.5) and the police service will be required to respond to this. The HMIC reports highlight the information needs of victims and their families in relation to police investigations and draw to attention diversity issues and the particular needs of victims from the minority ethnic community and other minority groups when they become the victims of crime. These factors are at the heart of this report.

The issue is not merely how well forces are managing crime today, it is also about how prepared they are to respond to the challenges presented as the criminal justice system develops and, in consequence, the expectations of the public change.

In the wake of this report HMIC will undertake studies focussing on community engagement, and performance and information management.

Following an initial literature review and desktop research, HMIC visited 8 forces in England and Wales, the Home Office, the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO), the Police Standards Unit, the Swedish Police Service and non-police organisations regarded as leaders in the field of customer service. Liaison was established with representatives of all relevant Scottish criminal justice agencies and Scottish Executive Departments.

The Inspection of Scottish Forces, which was conducted between March and May of 2003, was preceded by completion of a comprehensive 73 question 'protocol' by each force. This standard aspect of the HMIC inspection process provided a wealth of detailed information on force policies and procedures, permitting the inspection team to focus on the most relevant issues within each force, but also identify common or strategic issues.

The conduct of the inspection was greatly assisted by the involvement of an Advisory Group comprising representatives of key stakeholder groups ranging from Victim Support Scotland to the Police Staff Associations.

1.11 Research Commissioned

For the purposes of the study, HMIC commissioned two independent research projects to examine specific issues, namely:

• the principal methods by which the target crime types are detected (the results of which are summarised in this report)
• victim perceptions of the police and the wider criminal justice system (which is due to be published by the Scottish Executive, Criminal Justice Research Unit) ¹⁰.

The inspection was structured to take a systematic view on the way crime is dealt with by all the concerned parties, incorporating:

• the initial interaction between victim and police
• the subsequent police activities and decision making processes
• involvement of the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration (SCRA).

It is important to emphasise that the principal issues featured in this report are considered to be inter-related and equally important. The order in which chapters are produced simply reflect, to some extent, the natural chronology of a crime investigation.

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