PEEL Assessment 2023-25: West Mercia Police

The force needs to improve how it records equality data The force’s data for victims of crime shows that while age and gender of victims are well recorded, ethnicity is less well recorded, and other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded. The force should be collecting this information to understand the extent to which crime affects each protected group and how this differs when compared to those without protected characteristics. This will help the force to consider whether it needs to respond differently to these victims. West Mercia Police

The force should make sure its governance processes and performance data insight improve how it identifies and protects vulnerable people The force has a chief officer lead for safeguarding and a clear governance structure that provides direction to officers and staff around vulnerability. However, we found the force lacked confidence in its vulnerability data. We attended two force strategic meetings where different analyses of the same force data sets were presented. And the force has limited access to data from some of its safeguarding partner organisations. The force records data on spreadsheets, which increases the possibility of user error and leads to incomplete and inaccurate data being presented at strategic meetings. This means the force doesn’t fully understand the vulnerability issues it faces. And it affects the force’s ability to make evidenced-based responses to strategic and operational issues. The force should remove manual and inefficient data collection processes to improve data quality. West Mercia Police

The force should increase its consideration and use of ancillary orders to safeguard vulnerable people in all appropriate cases When we last inspected the force in 2021, we reported that the use of Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) and Domestic Violence Protection Notices was low. These orders and notices protect victims by helping police and magistrates’ courts put in place protective measures immediately after a domestic violence incident. We found the force’s use of D POs and Domestic iolence Protection otices remained low despite some improvements. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force applied for DVPOs in 0.88 percent of its recorded domestic abuse-related crimes. In our victim service assessment, we found that it considered the use of such orders in six of ten relevant cases. Many officers we spoke to lacked confidence and knowledge around how to apply for orders. We also found the force’s unreliable IT systems limited the effective use of orders. Despite this, we did see specialist teams making good use of orders to protect vulnerable children. The force plans to introduce a civil interventions team, which should improve its use of orders. The force must make sure that those applying for orders are confident and have the right level of support, and that the use of orders increases, to protect vulnerable people. West Mercia Police

The force needs to make sure it manages adult and child safeguarding risk assessments effectively, and that referrals to safeguarding partners are made promptly When officers identify risk and vulnerability, they complete child and adult risk assessments. Four harm assessment units are responsible for secondary risk assessments and referral to statutory partners. The force also has domestic abuse risk officers who are responsible for making safeguarding referrals for high-risk domestic abuse cases. It is important that all cases are referred to statutory partners as soon as possible so that appropriate safeguarding and support is provided without delay. This is particularly important when a case is assessed as being high risk. During our inspection, both in July 2024 and again in December 2024, we found one policing area had significant backlogs in cases waiting for a secondary risk assessment. In December 2024, the backlog of 1,023 cases caused a 16-day delay in assessments, including assessments of high-risk referrals. We found no significant backlogs in the other policing areas. But the force hadn’t implemented a sustainable plan to prevent backlogs in a policing area previously highlighted as having problems. Since our inspection, chief officers told us they had cleared the existing backlogs. They said they had put appropriate governance in place to monitor and deal with the backlogs in the future. This is promising, but it is too soon to assess whether these measures will be effective. We will continue to monitor this issue. West Mercia Police

The force needs to improve its monitoring processes to make sure it completes active risk management system assessments at the earliest opportunity The force has dedicated offender managers who are specially trained in the management of sexual or violent offenders. Each offender has a personalised risk management plan to reduce the risk they pose to the public. As part of the plan, offender managers use the active risk management system (ARMS), a structured risk assessment process. This is intended to provide police and probation services with information to help manage convicted sex offenders in the community. But we found that the force didn’t effectively monitor overdue ARMS assessments. During our Violent and Sex Offender Register audit, we found a backlog of 253 ARMS assessments. The oldest was more than eight months old. It isn’t possible for the force to reassure itself that there are no delayed ARMS assessments without a formal effective monitoring process. This is an inherent risk. West Mercia Police

The force needs to make sure there is a clear policy for the management of violent and sexual offenders, and that this is followed in all its policing areas There is a management of sexual or violent offenders (MOSOVO) team in each of the five local policing areas. These work independently under the leadership of a detective inspector. These detective inspectors have responsibility for other departments as well as the MOSOVO teams. As a result, we found that the MOSO O teams didn’t always receive the consistent oversight that they needed. West Mercia Police

The force should make sure that it identifies officers and staff who need extra support, and provides them with appropriate care Senior leaders have made significant efforts to provide comprehensive well-being support, but we found that this wasn’t always apparent to officers and staff. During our inspection we found that the support available for staff and officers in high-risk roles wasn’t enough, with many of them telling us they hadn’t received any extra well-being support from the force. Some told us that, although they had completed stress assessments, the force did nothing with the results. We spoke to detectives in high-risk roles who were particularly vulnerable. They had high workloads and told us they completed work on rest days. We also found that the force didn’t identify, nor provide, well-being support to all staff and officers who dealt with traumatic incidents. In our PEEL workforce survey, we found that only 35 percent of respondents (449 of 1,283 respondents) felt that time was prioritised for de-brief and decompression after such incidents. The force has recently changed the way it manages well-being after traumatic incidents. In January 2025, it showed us a new digital system designed to improve the critical incident debrief process. We will continue to monitor the force’s progress and how it supports workforce well-being. West Mercia Police

The force needs to introduce its occupational health case management system as soon as possible The force’s current occupational health systems and processes limit its ability to track officer and staff well-being, to understand what interventions work and to make informed improvements. This means it can’t easily identify officers who may need additional support. While individual officers and staff that had used the occupational health unit services told us they were happy with their treatment, the lack of a case management system means the force can’t meet the Oscar Kilo foundation occupational health standards. The force told us that it planned to introduce a case management system in February 2025. We hope that the prompt adoption of the system provides the needed improvements and benefits the workforce and the organisation. West Mercia Police

The force must make sure that it has enough effectively trained sergeants During our inspection we found some teams with no permanent sergeants. In some areas, sergeants were responsible for teams based across different stations. And several teams have had frequent changes of sergeants. In areas with limited cover, officers told us that their sergeants didn’t review and finalise cases as quickly as they should. ew recruits felt they didn’t always have enough support from a supervisor to help them learn how to carry out effective investigations. The force told us that by December 2024, 44 percent of sergeants had attended the first-line leaders’ course. Those who had attended the course told us it had prepared them for their roles. But not all new leaders have been able to access this training. This leads to inconsistency in the quality of first-line leaders, and their ability to support their teams’ well-being and development. West Mercia Police

The force needs to make sure its professional development review process is effective and valued by its officers and staff In our previous PEEL report, we said the force should improve how it manages individual performance, making sure reviews are consistently and fairly applied across the workforce and valued by all. This remains an area for improvement. West Mercia Police

The force needs to make better use of data and analysis to make sure it is operating efficiently and effectively The force has a clear governance structure and holds effective executive meetings. The force has access to performance data such as response times and call answering times. This data can be presented to the workforce in an accessible way using Power BI products. But some data is manually drawn from systems, which takes hours of staff time that could be better used elsewhere. And this process is vulnerable to user error, which can affect the accuracy of the information leaders receive. This means senior leaders aren’t always able to hold managers to account for their teams’ performance. As a result, some officers and staff aren’t clear what is expected of them. The force needs to improve its collection and analysis of data so it can promote effective performance and productivity across the force. West Mercia Police

The force needs to improve the time it takes to record crimes The force records less than two thirds of crime within 24 hours. Recording crime without delay helps make sure that victims receive the support they require, as well as establishing an effective investigation. West Mercia Police

The force should improve how it uses its operating model and workforce to help it to deal with priorities and demand The force’s current operating model isn’t fully staffed, so the force doesn’t have enough officers in the right places to fulfil its objectives. We found that the teams within the operating model responsible for investigating crimes were under-resourced. As a result, the force is using inexperienced officers to investigate crimes that they aren’t properly trained to deal with. West Mercia Police

The force should make sure it has detailed data so it can fully understand how well it uses stop and search and use of force, and should publish this information on its website The force has improved data recording processes of stop and search and use of force incidents by preventing officers and staff from submitting incomplete forms. But the force now needs to analyse this data to better understand how these powers are being used. It should also make sure that it has access to more detailed data, such as when force is used during stop and search incidents. The force will then better understand how fairly it uses police powers. For example, in the year ending 31 March 2024, members of ethnic minority groups made up 11.8 percent of use of force incidents recorded by the force, but accounted for only 5.8 percent of the local population. The number of use of force incidents involving members of ethnic minority groups is also higher than the number of arrests of members of this group. This suggests that the force may be using force more often on people from these minority groups. A more detailed and accurate range of data of the use of police powers might help the force better understand this issue. In the year ending 31 March 2024, force data showed 8.4 percent of use of force incidents resulted in subject injury, and 7.5 percent resulted in officer injury. Both rates are higher than expected for forces in England and Wales. During our inspection we raised this with the force. It wasn’t able to explain these levels of injury. When it has collected and analysed the more detailed data, the force will be able to publish how its officers are using these powers on the force website. This will help the community to understand if the force is using police powers fairly. West Mercia Police

The force should better co-ordinate and carry out prevention activity across all its policing areas and departments The force has developed the capacity and capability to support the successful prevention and deterrence of crime. There are enough officers and staff across the force well trained in prevention and problem-solving. It has problem-solving hubs in its policing areas, supported by a centrally based prevention hub. And local neighbourhood policing teams generally have enough officers and staff, and are focused on prevention activity. However, we found that officers and staff weren’t always clear about how they could contribute to the prevention of crime. Much of this confusion has been caused by the frequent changes of direction from senior officers leading this activity. The force implemented several new initiatives poorly, which led to disparate and inefficient working practices. For example, many officers have been trained to spot offenders likely to assault women in the nighttime economy. This is positive. But the force’s processes and structures make it difficult to deploy these officers to where they are needed. Chief officers recognise that the force’s preventative activity lacks strategic co-ordination. They told us this will be addressed in 2025 by planned changes to their operating model. West Mercia Police

The force needs to make sure it answers emergency calls quickly enough The force needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls. In the year ending 31 October 2024, West Mercia Police received 131 calls per 1,000 population. This was lower than expected compared to the average for forces in England and Wales. In the year ending 31 October 2024, the force answered 78.9 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. This is lower than the standard expected for forces in England and Wales of answering 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call. The force has made some improvements and in December 2024 it answered 87.2 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. But the force told us that IT issues and lack of staffing continued to affect its ability to improve. It is important the force sustains these recent improvements so it can provide an effective service to the public. West Mercia Police

The force needs to reduce the number of non-emergency calls the caller abandons because they aren’t answered The force told us that in the year ending 30 November 2024 the 12-month rolling average for non-emergency call abandonment was 29.3 percent. As set out in the 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance, forces with a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate below 5 percent. The force aims to answer 70 percent of non-emergency calls within 2 minutes but has failed to achieve that target. The force told us that 20 percent of calls were abandoned in the first 0 seconds, but it can’t identify why. The force commissioned a survey of 354 callers who had abandoned their non-emergency calls. About 25 percent of responses said they were cut off. The force told us it couldn’t ascertain if this was due to limitations with technology or due to other factors. The force will struggle to make improvements if it doesn’t understand the cause of the problem. West Mercia Police

The force should improve the recording of vulnerability on incident logs During our last inspection, we reported that vulnerability wasn’t being consistently identified or recorded by the force. We have seen improvements during this inspection. In our victim service assessment, we found that the force was checking systems for vulnerability in 87 of 94 cases. But it only recorded the details of the vulnerability in 26 of 36 relevant cases. Recording this information makes sure that officers and staff understand that the caller or victim is vulnerable when they attend an incident. It prompts them to consider any additional support that may be needed. If vulnerability isn’t recorded, officers and staff attending the incident might miss opportunities to support the victim. West Mercia Police

The force doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. It has low numbers of crimes that are solved following investigations. The force needs to better understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims. been revised since. British Transport Police and the 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. 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. We found the force had a very low use of out-of-court disposals. It is missing opportunities for justice with fair outcomes for victims, offenders and communities. 1 Mar 201 0 un 201 0 Sep 201 1 Dec 201 1 Mar 201 0 un 201 0 Sep 201 1 Dec 201 1 Mar 201 0 un 201 0 Sep 201 1 Dec 201 1 Mar 201 0 un 201 0 Sep 201 1 Dec 201 1 Mar 201 0 un 201 0 Sep 201 1 Dec 201 1 Mar 2020 0 un 2020 0 Sep 2020 1 Dec 2020 1 Mar 2021 0 un 2021 0 Sep 2021 1 Dec 2021 1 Mar 2022 0 un 2022 0 Sep 2022 1 Dec 2022 1 Mar 202 0 un 202 0 Sep 202 1 Dec 202 1 Mar 202 0 un 202 West Mercia Police

The force should make sure it carries out a victim needs assessment where appropriate Under the revised Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, all victims of a criminal offence are entitled to a victim needs assessment. This assessment identifies at an early stage whether victims need additional support throughout the investigation. It also identifies whether a victim is entitled to enhanced rights under the Code. This can mean the difference between a victim supporting or not supporting an investigation. In our victim service assessment, we found the force carried out a victim needs assessment in only 24 of 59 relevant cases. And it only recorded when a victim was entitled to enhanced rights in 17 of 37 relevant cases. West Mercia Police