« Previous | Contents |
Listen
Strathclyde Police Primary Inspection 2004
6. Results
6.1 Strathclyde Police has stated its intent to move away from a traditional focus on reporting performance against targets in the last Public Performance Report. The force intends to provide greater detail on both its strategic approach and what it has done to address key priority areas. This change reflects the force's desire to concentrate on and be more informative about longer term planning and strategies.
6.2 In the meantime, HMIC presents the force's performance against its own targets for 2002/2003. Figure 7 illustrates this, where the blue circle represents the target increases or reductions, whilst the red squares mark the actual performance. Performance that exceeds a target is depicted by the red square appearing within the blue circle and greater proximity to its centre reflects higher performance.
Figure 7: Performance Against Force Targets
6.3 The graph shows 16 targeted areas. In the majority of cases, the targets were successfully achieved and often quite markedly exceeded. Increases in detections of drug offences, reductions in the incidence of housebreaking and vehicle crime and falls in two of the road crash casualty/fatality indicators show particularly strong performance. In some cases, where the force failed to meet its targets, improvements in performance are nevertheless apparent. Examples here include increasing the number of reported racist incidents and the rise in detection rate for housebreaking.
6.4 Figure 8 provides a summary of force results in a number of areas identified as performance indicators by Audit Scotland and HMIC. The data are based on the most current full-year statistics available to HMIC at the time of the inspection. The ring of blue points on the multi-graph represents the national average for Scotland. Where the Strathclyde results exceed average performance, this is shown by a red square inside the circle. Performance below average is shown by the square appearing outside the circle. The closer the red square is to the centre of the circle, the better the performance.
Figure 8: Performance Against Scottish Average
6.5 It is clear that while positive results have been achieved improvement against past performance, the force's results appear less favourable against the Scottish average. However, it is important to recognise that comparison on a national basis can only be made in the context of the differing policing circumstances within each force area. What the results do indicate is that the force can, and has, made a positive impact in most of the areas that it prioritised.
6.6 Further detail and comment is now provided in relation to specific results. Where sufficient data are available, HMIC prefers to examine forces' performance over the longer term. Additionally, assessing performance in the context of rates per 1,000 population makes it easier to make comparisons against the Scottish average. However, it should be noted that the Strathclyde Police area is markedly larger than other forces and therefore its greater share of crime, staff, population, etc., has a significant influence on respective Scottish averages.
Crime
6.7 Looking first at crime, the force's rate per 1,000 population remains the second highest of all Scottish forces. That said, the force's recorded incidence of total crime (Groups 1-5) has shown a greater than (Scottish) average decline over the last 5 years.
6.8 Much of this has been driven by annual declines in Crimes of Dishonesty (Group 3). This group typically accounts for the largest proportion of all recorded crime and includes the statutory Performance Indicator crimes of domestic housebreaking and motor vehicle crime. Strong performance against both of these indicators has resulted in persistent declines in recorded incidence. In fact, all sub-categories of offence within this group show long term reductions. The force's Crime Prevention Business Unit has been particularly active in these areas, working to promote various Secured by Design and Secured Car Park initiatives. More recently, phase V of the Safer Scotland campaign also focused on acquisitive crime.
6.9 Also showing a fall over the last 5 years are Crimes of Indecency (Group 2). This is in positive contrast to the upward national trend. As is the case for most forces, Strathclyde Police has seen a rise in rapes and assaults with intent to ravish as work continues to encourage victims of these crimes to come forward, e.g. through third party reporting mechanisms. The force has also conducted a good deal of work in response to complaints concerning prostitution.
6.10 A less consistent picture emerges with Crimes of Non Sexual Violence (Group 1). Where the overall trend has been downward, this has tended to reflect falls in recorded robberies. The formation of a Robbery Unit within a Glasgow city division, with the ability to maintain a focus on the intelligence and analysis of robbery, may well have contributed to this. Conversely, serious assaults and 'other' crimes including threats and extortion, have risen. The wider use of CCTV in town centres provides greater opportunities for the police to witness crimes such as assaults, including those that might otherwise have remained unreported.
6.11 As a consequence of rises in crime Groups 1 and 2, there has been a resultant small increase in relation to serious violent crime. The biggest rise can, however, be seen in Fire-raising and Vandalism (Group 4). This largely follows on from a change to a more robust recording practice, particularly in respect of vandalism offences.
6.12 'Other' recorded crimes falling within Group 5 include drug, offensive weapon and knife offences. These are commonly the result of proactive policing and so increases in incidence here can be viewed positively. All three categories have been the focus of recent force activity, and show long-term rises. Reducing disorder in public places and other Group 6 offences have also been the subject of a number of initiatives. Force-wide activity under the previous Spotlight Initiative, as well as more localised projects such as Operation Magnet, are likely to have contributed to longer-term rises in recorded breaches of the peace and disorder etc recorded here.
6.13 Increases in recorded incidence of Motor Vehicle offences (Group 7) also tend to reflect proactive policing. Here, Strathclyde Police has experienced a sharper than average rise over the last 5 years, particularly in the categories of speeding and unlawful use of a vehicle. Various national and force initiatives have taken place over this time, while the introduction of static and mobile speed technology has increased capacity in this area.
6.14 Turning to detection, overall performance is positive with each of the last 5 years recording a slight increase. Recent developments such as the deployment of centralised CCTV systems, the introduction of the National Intelligence Model and Automatic Number Plate Recognition throughout the force, are believed to have contributed to detections across crime groups.
6.15 In most crime groups, detection rates have remained static or declined, but improvement is found in Group 3. This is primarily due to a rise in detected motor vehicle crime. Domestic housebreaking detections are down slightly though, contrasting with a very positive national picture for detection rate and a positive force trend for incidence.
6.16 Strathclyde Police has introduced a number of changes to its DNA, crime scene capture and evidence recovery processes. In addition, the force has recently embarked upon a 3-year project, designed to increase its Forensic Support Department's ability to attend more crime scenes. This includes a specific target of increasing attendance at volume crime incidents. The force also anticipates that the recent introduction of a Search and Recovery Team within the city of Glasgow will further assist in detecting offenders in this group.
6.17 The crime data analysed during the inspection relate to the period 2002/2003. Provisional crime statistics for 2003/2004 suggest that the force has continued to build on its positive performance as the incidence of total recorded crime has fallen again, while the overall detection rate has risen further.
Race Issues - Internal
6.18 The number of police officers of minority ethnic background employed by the Scottish police service continues to grow yearly, albeit slowly. At March 2003, there were 100 such officers, representing 0.64% of all serving Scottish police officers. The same upward trend is apparent in Strathclyde, where 58 minority ethnic police officers currently serve. This is equivalent to 0.78% of all officers in the force and the second highest proportion of all Scottish forces.
6.19 In 2002/2003, the Scottish police service received 88 applications for police officer posts from minority ethnic candidates. Over 60% of these were made specifically to Strathclyde Police, representing 1.5% of all applicants to the force. Of the 10 candidates who were successful in the selection process, six were recruited by Strathclyde Police amounting to 1.3% of all force recruits. Thus, despite having lost six serving black and minority ethnic officers over the last 5 years, the force has maintained its relatively high proportion of minority ethnic officers.
6.20 On a force-wide basis, 78.3% of police officers hold the rank of constable and the remainder are in promoted posts. In relation to black and minority ethnic officers, 94.8% are currently of constable rank. Analysis of officers eligible for promotion can be complex and without details of length of service, qualifications and career profiles, it is difficult to draw conclusions. However, it may be noteworthy that within the last 5 years, no minority ethnic officer in Strathclyde Police has been promoted beyond the rank of sergeant.
6.21 The number of minority ethnic support staff has remained fairly static over the last 5 years. While at 0.78% of total support staff the force continues to display a high proportion relative to the national figure of 0.5%, it nevertheless reflects a decline over time. Furthermore, over the last 5 years, Strathclyde Police has recruited just four black and minority ethnic support staff from a total of 706 black and minority ethnic applicants. This reflects a lower success rate than that for all support staff applicants.
6.22 The same is true of recruitment of minority ethnic special constables. The number of black and minority ethnic applicants for the Special Constabulary remains low, i.e. typically under ten per year. Since 2000/2001, Strathclyde has recruited just two such candidates from a field of 12. At March 2003, there were just 13 black and minority ethnic special constables throughout Scotland, seven of whom were engaged by Strathclyde Police. At 2.9%, the force enjoys a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic special constables than Scotland as a whole, which has 1.1%.
6.23 Training to an appropriate standard of diversity awareness is required of all police staff, in accordance with the National Equal Opportunities Training Strategy (NEOTS). The training is delivered at three levels tailored towards operational (Level I), supervisory (Level II) and managerial (Level III) ranks or grades. Levels I and III training within Strathclyde Police had been delivered prior to the inspection and Level II was completed as scheduled in April 2004.
Race Issues - External
6.24 The number of reported racist incidents continues to rise yearly, both nationally and at force level. The rate of such incidents per 1,000 population in the Strathclyde Police area is comparable with that for Scotland as a whole. The rise is likely to be due to both an actual increase in the occurrence of incidents and greater public confidence in reporting them to the police. Data also suggest that the force is increasingly making use of available legislation in respect of racially aggravated conduct and harassment. Whilst not fully explaining this increase, it is important to acknowledge the service's attempts to assure the public of their commitment to eradicating racist behaviour and to encourage reporting of such incidents.
6.25 The number of complaints per 100 officers alleging racially discriminatory behaviour is low but has also risen slightly at both force and national levels in recent years.
Corporate Health
6.26 The proportion of working time lost to sickness amongst force staff is part of a suite of statutory indicators monitored by Audit Scotland. An internal force audit conducted on their behalf revealed a number of deficiencies in the force's absence management recording system. For this reason, precise analysis is problematic, although the system/counting faults have been consistent over a period of time. Therefore, whilst the figures themselves are unreliable, the trend they reflect should be indicative of actual performance. On this tentative basis, the proportion of working time lost to sickness amongst police officers shows relatively little change over the last 3 years. Sickness absence among support staff shows some recent signs of improvement, although the rate remains higher than that recorded for police officers.
6.27 For the 4 years to 2001/2002, ill-health retirements, as a proportion of all retirements and all wastage, both in Strathclyde Police and nationally, had seen little fluctuation. In 2002/2003 however, there was a marked drop for both, but particularly so for Strathclyde Police, as illustrated:
Figure 9: Ill-Health Retirements 1999-2004
6.28 This coincided with a change in the management of ill-health retirement which involved a greater role for the Joint Police Board. The initial reduction was not sustained, however, and it will be interesting to ascertain if there is a downward trend in the longer term.
Corporate Identity
6.29 The force's most recent customer satisfaction survey was conducted in August 2002. With a response rate of 32.7%, satisfaction with the police initial response, at 80.7%, was the highest in 3 years. Over 75% of respondents were then satisfied with the force's overall handling of the matter. Other findings showed that public expectations were met, or exceeded, in 88.5% of cases. Reasons for positive responses included officers' professional manner, good response time and prompt action. Areas of dissatisfaction included lack of feedback, being unhappy with action taken and poor response time. Amidst these figures, an increase from 52.1% to 59.3% was identified from the percentage of respondents who felt they had been kept well informed.
6.30 Strathclyde Police has not carried out an external survey of the force area's general population since 2001. The force is currently reviewing its approach to such activities and it is envisaged that a future consultation strategy may involve a move from police-specific surveys to joint exercises with community planning partners. In the meantime, the force accesses this type of information through the results of partner surveys.
6.31 In early 2003, the force commissioned external consultants to conduct a comprehensive survey of its employees. Perceived strengths of the force emerging from this exercise related mainly to conditions of employment and the quality of immediate management. Areas for improvement tended to relate to treating staff as valued and respected employees including fair treatment, understanding the issues they face and workload considerations. HMIC acknowledges that the force has prepared an action plan detailing how these areas are being addressed, with progress being reported on a monthly basis.
Service Delivery
6.32 The proportion of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds is another Audit Scotland statutory indicator. This indicator does not measure the reaction time to deployment of officers. The time for each call is the time from the call being received in the control room until it is answered. Evidently, the number of staff deployed in the control room will affect performance. The call handling statistics supplied by the force show that a rising proportion of 999 calls are being answered within this time.
6.33 The force set an internal target of answering non 999 calls within 25 seconds but the proportion being answered within this timescale fell by 13 percentage points in the last year, i.e. between 2001/2002 and 2002/2003.
Firearms Licensing
6.34 Strathclyde Police has the consistently lowest rate per population for firearm and shotgun certificates in Scotland. As with the national trend, available data show annual falls in the numbers of both on issue in the force area over the last 5 years. Renewal of certificates is carried out in accordance with ACPOS Best Practice guidelines. Only in a small number of cases are these not completed prior to the expiry date, typically as a result of additional and necessary enquiries.
Crime Recording
6.35 As part of the inspection, HMIC conducted an audit of the force incident recording system for a 24-hour period, with a total of 1,902 incidents being reviewed. The review period pre-dated the introduction of the new Scottish Crime Recording Standard. The audit found a high level of accuracy in the raising of crime reports from relevant incidents. A number of queries arose from the examination regarding incidents where there was an allegation of criminality, usually relatively minor, but where the incident gave no indication as to whether a crime had been committed and, if so, recorded. Further investigation revealed that in the vast majority of cases, crime reports had indeed been created. In a small number of instances, a crime had been committed but no crime report had been raised. In total, 22 such instances were identified, all for minor acts of vandalism or dishonesty.
6.36 The new Scottish Crime Recording Standard, introduced throughout the country on 1 April 2004, is aimed at achieving greater consistency in recording practices across Scotland. Strictly applied, the new standard resolves uncertainty and should address the inconsistencies found during the inspection. HMIC will monitor its application throughout the Scottish police service.
« Previous | Contents |