PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Wiltshire Police

The force needs to improve the accuracy of recording rape crimes and incidents of rape The force doesn’t always correctly record crimes of rape and reported incidents of rape (N100s). In our audit we found that the force had recorded 34 out of 41 crimes of rape which should have been recorded. Of the seven unrecorded crimes of rape, five were incorrectly recorded as N100s or other crimes and two weren’t recorded at all. The force should improve its recording practices to make sure that rape crimes and reported incidents of rape are recorded correctly. Wiltshire Police

The force needs to improve the time it takes to record crimes The force records significantly less than half of crime within 24 hours, including reports of rape, often taking more than three days to do so. Recording crime without delay means victims receive the support they require. And it means the force establishes an effective investigation. Wiltshire Police

The force needs to improve how it gathers data on stop and search and use of force We found the force lacks an in-depth understanding of how it uses stop and search and use of force powers. There is an under-recording of use of force and stop and search in Wiltshire. Poor IT systems have resulted in stop and search records not being uploaded to force systems. The force estimates that only 67.1 percent of stop and search forms upload successfully. The force told us an IT solution would resolve this after April 2024. We also found that officers don’t always complete the self-defined ethnicity field on the stop and search form, which means the force doesn’t have complete ethnicity data for the use of this power. The force should make sure that officers record ethnicity data in all stop and search incidents. The force has implemented a learning package for stop and search, with 80 percent of officers completing the training. The force doesn’t record all use of force incidents. In the year ending 31 March 2023, the force recorded 2,297 use of force incidents. During the same period officers made 6,437 arrests. We would expect the number of uses of force to be greater than the number of arrests. Accordingly, we estimate that Wiltshire Police under-recorded use of force by at least 5,258 incidents. This suggests use of force may be recorded for only 30 percent of incidents. Senior leaders told us that in February 2024 incidents recorded had risen to 60.8 percent of the number of arrests made. Wiltshire Police

The force needs to make sure it answers emergency calls quickly enough In the year ending 31 March 2024, Wiltshire Police answered 70.4 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was below the expected standard of answering 90 percent within 10 seconds. force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call. Lincolnshire reater Manchester West Midlands Norfolk Cumbria went Nottinghamshire West orkshire Leicestershire Staffordshire Suffolk South orkshire Cleveland Humberside Northamptonshire Surrey Sussex Cheshire Northumbria South Wales Hertfordshire Lancashire Thames Valley Warwickshire evon Cornwall Essex yfed Powys Avon Somerset Merseyside North orkshire North Wales Metropolitan Police ent loucestershire Cambridgeshire Hampshire urham erbyshire Bedfordshire orset West Mercia Wiltshire Proportion of calls answered in under 10 seconds Target 0 of calls should be answered in under 10 seconds Wiltshire 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. It needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims. In the year ending 30 September 2023, Wiltshire Police recorded 36,760 victim-based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 10.4 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range compared to the average for forces in England and Wales. 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. 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 a corporate body. Between the year ending 30 September 2022 and 30 September 2023, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 14: Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified; victim does not support further action) decreased from 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent. This value is lower than expected compared to the average for forces in England and Wales. Wiltshire Police

The force should improve its governance and use insights from data so it can give a better service to vulnerable people Wiltshire Police has a vulnerability strategy and a vulnerability improvement plan that is aligned to the National Vulnerability Action Plan on the Vulnerability, Knowledge and Practice Programme website. There is a clear meeting structure which should track activity related to the plan. But while the force has dedicated vulnerability leads to instigate this activity, these leads are from several directorates, not just ‘protecting vulnerable people’, and the force has changed a number of these leads over a brief period. This may have affected the force’s ability to promptly progress action plans. Accordingly, we identified that updates were recorded inconsistently. This means that senior officers can’t track activity or identify emerging performance challenges. The force is reviewing these structures as part of planned changes to its operating model (TOM 2) in the summer of 2024. The force lacks access to partnership information. Therefore, it doesn’t fully understand the scale of vulnerability. And it doesn’t have a clear understanding of its own data. This affects its ability to make evidence-based responses to strategic and operational issues. This was evident when senior officers told us that the force doesn’t know why it records a low level of high-risk domestic assaults. Additionally, when the force provided us with data about its use of Domestic Violence Protection Orders, those responsible for this work couldn’t explain what the data was showing us. We discuss the force’s problems with data further in our chapter on leadership and force management. Wiltshire Police

The force should address inconsistencies in staffing across specialist departments During our inspection we found inconsistencies in staffing levels within investigative departments. A lack of capacity in some teams has affected staff and officer well-being and their ability to investigate crime. Not only does this affect the workforce within these departments, but also the service given to the public. Senior leaders told us they will resolve this when they implement part two of the new operating model (TOM 2) in summer 2024. Wiltshire Police

The force needs to make sure that the professional development review process is effective and valued by its officers and staff All officers and staff should have development discussions with their line managers. These discussions should form part of the professional development review process and be recorded on the force professional development review (PDR) IT system. The completion rate for the force PDR was 59 percent in the year ending 31 March 2023. We carried out a workforce survey from 6 November to 4 December 2023. We received 580 responses, which is an estimated 23.3 percent of the workforce. The survey results showed that of those who completed the PDR, 47.2 percent agreed it was an effective tool in their development. Only 58 percent agreed that they value the process. During our fieldwork, most officers told us that the PDR process was ineffective. Wiltshire Police

The force needs to make sure it has quality data that supports strategic decision-making processes The force has access to a wide range of performance data. But we found that it is missing some important information. This prevents the force from having a full understanding of some demands. Nor does it have confidence that it makes strategic decisions with all the information that it needs to make sure they are effective. For example, we found that the force doesn’t have access to some partnership data, such as information from the NHS. So it doesn’t understand some sources of demand. This has an effect on how well it manages and responds to these demands. This also affects how well the force can work with its partners to provide joint services. The force must improve the data sharing process so it can meet the needs of its communities now and in the future. During our PEEL 2020/21 inspection, we found the force didn’t have an effective understanding about the skills of its workforce. During this inspection we found this still to be the case, despite the force’s plans to create a skills database. It had made little progress and still doesn’t fully understand the capability and capacity of its workforce. This had an effect when the force introduced a new operating model for its response teams. As part of those changes, the force needed to make sure it allocated resources where they were most needed. But the force couldn’t assure itself it had the right distribution of skills within its new operating model. This led to some gaps in capability. The force should make sure it has access to this data and that it is consistently used before it makes workforce decisions. Wiltshire Police