PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to improve its officers’ confidence in using stop and search as an investigative tactic Many officers we spoke to lack confidence in carrying out stop and search, and don’t feel supported enough to use it as an investigative tactic. In some cases, we also found officers deprioritised the use of stop and search owing to competing demands for their time. Supervisors we spoke to agree with these views. We found that the constabulary had already identified this issue through feedback from its frontline officers. In the year ending 31 March 2022, the constabulary carried out 1,735 stop and searches. This is 1.6 stop and searches per 1,000 population, which is significantly lower than the 8.4 per 1,000 population across England and Wales. More recent data shows that the number of stop and searches increased by 17.8 percent in the year to March 2023. But the constabulary continued to have the lowest rate of stop and searches among forces in England and Wales. Officers should be confident and skilled in knowing when stop and search is appropriate as an investigative tactic. If they aren’t, this can undermine the constabulary’s ability to prevent and detect crime, which is essential for keeping communities safe. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary should make sure that problems and performance issues are raised to the appropriate level within the constabulary’s governance structure In our last inspection of Derbyshire Constabulary, we said that it lacked an effective governance and performance structure. Since that inspection, the constabulary has made considerable changes to its governance structure, implementing clear areas of responsibility. But we found areas of underperformance that were known about locally in the constabulary and weren’t being highlighted to senior managers who could make improvements. The constabulary should make sure that when problems are identified, staff and officers are confident in raising issues to senior managers who can bring about the changes needed to improve performance. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary should scrutinise the implementation of any changes to make sure they are achieving their intended aims Derbyshire Constabulary is making many changes to improve its performance. Much of this change has been well managed. But for some important changes, we found little or no scrutiny of whether they were achieving their intended effect, and of how messages about them were received by officers and staff. The constabulary should make sure that it monitors all changes so that it is aware of how they are being received by staff and officers, to make sure staff and officers are working with the constabulary to achieve the changes, and that they lead to improvements in policing. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to improve its training for recording the use of force, and better support officers to follow force policy and improve data quality The constabulary requires its officers to record any use of force on a form. We found a clear policy explaining this rule. But we found inconsistent understanding of this policy when speaking with officers. Some aren’t recording use of force when handcuffs have been used on members of the public, contrary to constabulary policy and national guidance. The constabulary has a system for identifying officers who don’t complete use of force forms. But we found that this wasn’t used consistently and sometimes identified the incorrect officer. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls In the year ending 30 June 2023, Derbyshire Constabulary received 167 emergency calls (999) per 1,000 population. This was in line with other forces in England and Wales. For the same period, Derbyshire Constabulary answered 66.4 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. This is lower than the standard expected of forces in England and Wales, which is to answer 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call. During our inspection, we found that the constabulary is taking action to improve. It has increased the number of staff in its control room, and changed its call handling processes. The constabulary’s data for the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 November 2023 shows month-on-month improvements in 999 answer times. The constabulary must sustain these improvements. If calls for service aren’t promptly answered, police officers may not attend incidents quickly enough to protect victims. Failure to answer calls promptly can also lead to investigative opportunities being missed and a loss of public confidence. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary should attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times, make sure that deployment decisions are supervised effectively and update the caller when there are delays The constabulary doesn’t always respond to calls for service within its target timescales. Our victim service assessment found that attendance was within the required attendance time in 31 of the 71 cases we reviewed. The constabulary updated callers of delays in attendance in 17 of 38 cases. And deployments received effective supervision in 25 of 52 cases we reviewed. If the constabulary isn’t attending incidents within its target times and isn’t informing victims of delays, victims could lose confidence and disengage from the process. It needs to improve the effectiveness of its supervision of deployments. This will better support staff to provide timely updates when delays occur. Since our victim service assessment, the constabulary has introduced a new incident grading policy. We saw how this allows staff to better prioritise incidents. Early data given to us by the constabulary shows that attendance times at incidents are improving. But they still remain short of their target times. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims The constabulary isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. The number of crimes that are solved following investigations is low. The constabulary needs to understand why this is, and work to achieve better outcomes for victims. of our inspection and may have been revised since. British Transport Police and City of London data are excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud). For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types please see the Home Office statistics. In the year ending 30 June 2023, Derbyshire Constabulary recorded 72,614 victim-based crimes. Of these crimes, 10.3 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This was within the typical range compared to other forces in England and Wales. But it was a reduction from 11.2 percent in the year ending 30 June 2022. our inspection and may have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or corporate body. Between the year ending 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2023, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 14: evidential difficulties (suspect not identified; victim doesn’t support further action) by Derbyshire Constabulary decreased from 4.6 percent to 3.6 percent. This value was within the typical range compared to other forces in England and Wales. Between the year ending 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2023, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 15: evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports further action) by Derbyshire Constabulary decreased from 17.1 percent to 15.7 percent. This value was within the typical range compared to other forces in England and Wales. Between the year ending 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2023, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 16: evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim doesn’t support further action) by Derbyshire Constabulary decreased from 27.0 percent to 22.9 percent. This value was within the typical range compared to other forces in England and Wales. Our victim service assessment found the constabulary doesn’t always close crimes with the appropriate outcome type. Outcomes aren’t always correct or effectively supervised. When we spoke to supervisors, they weren’t always aware of the constabulary policy on reviewing crime outcomes. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary should make sure there is supervisory oversight of investigations to make sure that all appropriate investigative opportunities are taken Our victim service assessment found evidence of effective supervision in 73 of 92 cases, and 78 of 100 investigations were judged to be effective. It also found that all appropriate and proportionate investigative opportunities were taken throughout the investigation in 79 of 98 cases. During our inspection, we spoke to investigators and reviewed their investigations. We found that supervisory reviews of investigations were inconsistent. While some teams had timely reviews and oversight, others had very little. The constabulary has clear standards for the supervision of investigations. But these aren’t always adhered to. Appropriate supervision is an important factor in how well forces carry out investigations. When supervision is absent or not good enough, investigations become compromised and the service to victims declines. We did find that the constabulary has recently introduced an assurance framework, known as quality assurance thematic testing. This assesses the quality of investigations and provides performance data. We saw this being used by senior leaders to hold underperforming team leaders to account. The constabulary’s data shows improvement in the timeliness and quality of supervisory reviews for the period between 1 April 2023 and 31 October 2023. These early improvements need to be sustained. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to make sure its domestic abuse risk assessment process considers the full range of risk and harm and the full context of previously reported incidents When officers attend a report of domestic abuse, they complete a risk assessment with the victim. This constabulary uses the Domestic Abuse, Stalking, Harassment and Honour-Based Violence model. This is used to grade the level of risk to the victim as standard, medium or high. The domestic abuse referral team reviews the initial assessment made by officers. This secondary risk assessment should correct errors and can regrade the level of risk if appropriate. If the grading is high, any criminal investigation is allocated to the constabulary’s high-risk domestic abuse team. This team has specially trained investigators, most of whom are qualified to professionalising investigations programme (PIP) level 2. A high-risk grading also means victims are considered for increased levels of support. Any other grading means the investigation is likely to be allocated to local policing units. These units are responsible for responding to incidents and investigating less serious or complex crimes. During our inspection, we reviewed domestic abuse related incidents downgraded from high to medium risk. We identified inappropriate downgrading of risk. In cases we reviewed, we identified assessments that didn’t consider: • previous incidents of abuse; • the emotional and psychological harm perpetrators are causing victims; or • that behaviour increasing in frequency should be treated as an escalation. In a small number of cases, secondary reviews minimised the concerns of victims. This meant the constabulary wasn’t always referring victims who should have been graded as high risk for the enhanced support they needed. It also meant some investigations were being investigated by less skilled or experienced officers and staff. When the constabulary downgraded investigations and allocated them to local policing unit officers, we did find that immediate safeguarding measures were put in place. The constabulary's priority in pursuing outstanding suspects of domestic abuse is reducing risk. We also found that domestic abuse support services in Derbyshire were identifying inappropriately downgraded risk in some cases, and raising them at a multi-agency risk assessment conference. Those present at the conference were then applying safeguarding as if the cases were high risk. We immediately shared our findings with the constabulary. It promptly provided plans to improve processes, training and oversight within the domestic abuse referral team. It also told us that it was increasing staffing in the high-risk domestic abuse team in anticipation of increased demand due to more investigations being categorised as high risk. It also took immediate action to review and correct downgraded risk assessments. This included reallocating crime investigations to specialist resources where needed. Refresher training was provided to officers in the domestic abuse referral team. We found the constabulary’s plans and the steps it has taken since our inspection encouraging. However, the constabulary must continue to address these issues and monitor progress. It needs to make sure that it is accurately measuring the level of risk faced by victims of domestic abuse. This will make sure it puts in place the right level of safeguarding and support to protect victims. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to improve how it oversees and monitors use of pre-charge bail and released under investigation We found there was no force-wide monitoring and scrutiny of how the constabulary is using pre-charge bail and released under investigation. The constabulary was unable to identify where pre-charge bail and released under investigation is used well (or not so well), and what might be preventing its effective use. In October 2022, bail legislation was changed to make pre-charge bail the default, rather than released under investigation. In the year ending 30 September 2022, the constabulary used pre-charge bail 752 times per 1,000 arrests. In the year ending 31 March 2023, this decreased to 671 uses per 1,000 arrests. Given the change in legislation, we would have expected the use of pre-charge bail to rise, not to fall. This is a good example of an issue that should be scrutinised at a constabulary-wide level. Performance isn’t monitored well enough, and there isn’t enough consistent data available to understand it. The constabulary can’t assure itself that risks are effectively managed. Nor is it able to identify issues and make improvements. Positively, the constabulary has dedicated officers called ‘charge managers’ who review bail appropriateness at a local level, and intervene to make sure the use of bail safeguards victims. And new data analytics have been made available to managers, although these weren’t consistently being used by the time our inspection ended. Derbyshire Constabulary

The constabulary needs to do more to support the development and inclusion of people from under-represented groups The constabulary has an equality, diversity and inclusion team. But we found it had vacant roles, which limited its capacity. It couldn't always effectively make progress on actions to improve inclusion and support under-represented groups. We found that officers and staff from under-represented groups don’t always feel supported to take up opportunities to develop and progress their careers. Some we spoke to said that diversity and cultural competence is improving. But there is a perception that some leaders in the workforce lack understanding of diversity. This meant that officers and staff weren’t confident in approaching some leaders to address issues of inequality caused by diversity. Between 3 July 2023 to 12 August 2023, we carried out a workforce survey in Derbyshire Constabulary. We received 1,219 responses, which is estimated to be 31.4 percent of the total workforce. In our survey, we found that in the last 12 months, 11.6 percent of respondents (140 of 1,203 respondents) had felt discriminated against at work. Of those who felt discriminated against, 55.7 percent (73 of 131 respondents) hadn’t reported it. Those who had experienced discrimination and hadn’t reported it were asked their reason for not reporting; 47 of 83 gave their reason as “nothing will happen”. Derbyshire Constabulary