Watchdog scrutiny eased for Devon and Cornwall Police

Devon and Cornwall Police has declared that it is no longer subject to additional scrutiny regarding its management of violent and sexual offenders within communities.

The oversight body identified three areas requiring enhancement: emergency call response, crime recording, and management of registered sex and violent offenders.

The force has confirmed that the heightened scrutiny has been lifted for the third aspect. However, the watchdog will continue to monitor emergency call response and crime recording, as stated by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICRFS).

Monitoring by the police inspectorate is conducted in two phases: scan and engage. While all forces around the country are put in the scan phase by default, Devon and Cornwall Police had been moved into the Engage phase. 

Following the decision, a report was also published in 2023 which identified the need for urgent improvements in the three areas outlined.

Inspectors calculated the force had failed to record more than 18,000 crimes over a one-year period.

It was also reported that people were waiting over an hour for 101 non-emergency calls. 

Acting Chief Constable Jim Colwell said: “I am extremely proud of the hard work and resilience of my officers and staff across the organisation who accepted HMICFRS’s findings and have worked relentlessly over the last 18 months to resolve the management of violent and sexual offenders in our communities.

“Although we remain in the Engage phase for the other two areas identified and recognise there is still work to do, improvements continue at pace. We have and will continue to have an open and honest dialogue with HMICFRS accepting their findings in respect of the key areas identified and focussing our efforts on a structured and measured response that seeks to deliver sustained improvements for our communities.”

Improvements continue to be made in how crime is recorded by the Force and the management of emergency and non-emergency calls.

The Force’s overall crime recording compliance stood at 87.8% in September 2023, an uplift of 7.5% since 2022 with the recording of violent crime showing an 11.6% improvement. Data from October suggest further improvements with early results indicating overall compliance at 91.2%. To help improve crime recording, the Force has delivered file quality training for staff and officers and will continue to roll out further system improvements and training this year.

The Force has made a significant improvement in answering emergency and non-emergency calls. 96.2% of 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds in December 2023. This is an improvement of 13.7% compared to December 2022 and well above the national target of 90%. In December 2023, 999 calls to the Force took an average of 3 seconds to be answered compared to 19 seconds in December 2022. In the last six months the number of 101 calls abandoned has decreased from 65.2% in June 2023 to 24.8% in December 2023 with this reduction covering the Force’s peak summer and Christmas/New Year periods.