Source · HMICFRS

PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Dorset Police

9 April 2025 PEEL Force Inspection 17 areas for improvement

PEEL 2023-25 inspection findings for Dorset Police

Applicable forces

Dorset Police

Areas for improvement

AFI The force needs to improve how it records crime when antisocial behaviour personal is reported The force is failing to record most crimes when victims report antisocial behaviour. We examined 49 incidents classed as antisocial behaviour personal. Of these, 16 crimes should have been recorded, but only 6 were. Victims of antisocial behaviour experience abuse and torment for substantial periods of time. Failing to record crimes and tackle antisocial behaviour can mean victims live in fear in their homes and experience long-term abuse and torment by people living next door or elsewhere in the local community. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to make sure it is using outcomes appropriately, which comply with force and national policies, leading to satisfactory results for victims The force doesn’t always close crimes with the appropriate outcome type. As part of our victim services assessment, we found it had applied the correct outcome in 61 of the 86 relevant cases we reviewed. The correct application of outcomes is essential for effective performance monitoring. If the force incorrectly applies outcomes, its performance frameworks may not identify themes such as why victims withdraw support for investigations, or when and why investigations don’t have positive outcomes. This could undermine its aim of achieving better results for victims. Dorset Police

AFI The force doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. The number of crimes that it solves following investigations is low. It needs to better understand the reason for this, to work to achieve better outcomes for victims. In the year ending 30 June 2024, Dorset Police recorded 42,259 victim-based crimes. Of these, 9.3 percent were assigned an 'offences brought to justice' outcome. This is within the normal range compared to other 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 corporate body. Between the year ending 30 June 2023 and the year ending 30 June 2024, the rate of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 14, 'Evidential difficulties: Suspect not identified; victim does not support further action', decreased from 11.3 percent to 8.6 percent. Both of these values are high compared to other forces in England and Wales. The force needs to do more to understand the reasons for some outcomes. This would help it to make the improvements needed to give victims the justice they deserve. It also needs to make sure it achieves better outcomes for victims through improved investigations that, in accordance with force and national policies, lead to satisfactory results for victims. Dorset Police

AFI The force should improve the management and oversight of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as lare’s Law, allows police forces to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner or ex-partner’s previous abusive or violent offending. When a disclosure application is successful, and the police have information suitable for disclosure, they should disclose it within 28 days. A delay increases the risk of harm to the victim or potential victim as it affects their ability to make an informed decision about a potentially violent or abusive person in their life. At the time of our inspection, we found that the force didn’t have an effective process to manage all applications. There was a detailed spreadsheet but it required manual data entry and lacked oversight of higher risk cases. Officers in the wider workforce lacked an understanding of timescales and the importance of the disclosure. We also found that officers deviated from national guidance by holding meetings over the phone. Officers should carry out these meetings in person or through a system that supports face-to-face meetings. We found that the force had made the DVDS application process available online to encourage more people to use it. This has resulted in an increase in applications. But the force should assure itself that it has oversight of all agreed disclosures and is able to track the timeline of disclosures. The force should also make sure that there is effective governance of all DVDS applications and that it complies with national guidance. Dorset Police

AFI The force should increase its consideration and use of preventative orders and have systems to monitor and prioritise breaches of those orders The force uses protective measures such as Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) and Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) to protect vulnerable victims. A DVPN is issued immediately after a domestic violence incident to grant the victim emergency protection from the perpetrator. This is followed by a DVPO, which allows the police and magistrates courts to provide that protection to victims when there isn’t enough evidence to charge the perpetrator. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the force applied for 159 DVPOs at court, 127 of which were granted at court. This equates to 1.67 percent of DVPOs applied for as a percentage of reported domestic abuse crimes. During the same period, the constabulary recorded nine DVPO breaches. The force told us that there has been an increase in DVPOs from January 2024 to November 2024. This shows the force’s commitment to keeping people safe, but the force could still improve in this area. The force told us that it lacks the data to fully understand why D PNs aren’t being converted to D POs. The force doesn’t have an effective process for proactively policing orders, so it may miss opportunities to detect breaches of those orders. The force has invested in specialist legal services to improve the application of orders, but it should do more to understand these processes and make sure it protects vulnerable victims. Dorset Police

AFI The force should make sure that bail is always considered as a safeguarding measure and intelligence is regularly updated for offenders suspected of accessing indecent images of children The force has processes in place to monitor the use of bail and this is reported on during force performance meetings. But it doesn’t consistently use bail as a safeguarding measure in cases of offenders who access indecent images of children. This means that there were no safeguarding measures in place to prevent those released under investigation from having contact with children. We found that the force doesn’t have flags on its systems for suspects dealt with by the paedophile online investigation team. As a result, investigators aren’t automatically notified of further incidents or intelligence regarding these suspects. We also found that the force is failing to update intelligence when delays occur. This means that they don’t know if the risk has changed, which is potentially leaving children at risk. The force should make sure that it takes every opportunity to safeguard children. This should include the application of bail conditions and also updating the intelligence of all those being managed where suspects present a risk to children and vulnerable people. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to make sure that the occupational health unit effectively supports the well-being of the workforce The force has identified that a change of provider and IT issues have affected how the occupational health unit (OHU) supports its workforce. Between March 2022 and March 2024, the force saw a steady increase in the number of occupational health referrals. We found that in the year ending 31 March 2024, there were 442 referrals to the OHU; 68.1 percent of these were mental health referrals. Between 22 July and 19 August 2024, we carried out a PEEL workforce survey. We received 978 responses, which is about 33.7 percent of the total workforce. Of those, 25.6 percent (348 of 978 respondents) stated Dorset Police had referred them to the occupational health service for support. Looking at the speed of referrals, 64.7 percent said that mental health referrals were timely and 59.7 percent said that physical health referrals were timely. Out of the respondents referred for both their mental and physical health, 59.7 percent said that referrals were timely. As of 31 March 2024, the time between referral and appointment in Dorset Police was 24.3 days. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the force also had fewer occupational health referrals per 100 employees than normally expected for forces in England and Wales. Some supervisors didn’t know when to make referrals or what other support they could give. The force should give supervisors more guidance on when to refer people to the OHU for support. The force has assessed the full nature of demand the OHU faces and put work in place to address the delays. Once this work is complete, it would benefit from producing a written structured plan to make sure both the workforce and organisation see the improvements quickly. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to understand capability and capacity in its change processes to be sure that it can achieve the change that is required The force has introduced organisational changes to help it improve performance and provide a better service to the public. It has made great progress in the pursuit of these aims. We found there is good governance of organisational change in the force, with a strategic change board focusing on the most effective changes. The force effectively oversees its change programme, named Operation Evolve. It has access to a lot of detailed information which allows the force to respond quickly to changing demand. For example, the force recognised that if it pooled the resources in its enhanced video response team to create a central resource, then it could improve capacity in the team and use the extra resources in other areas of need. But the force now needs to refine its operational change processes to support further improvements. Officers and staff told us that a high number of projects haven’t been implemented but they don’t have the resources for them. The force should assure itself that when it identifies programmes of work as necessary to improve its services, it has the capacity to make these changes. Dorset Police

AFI The force should review its allocation process to make sure that all crimes are allocated appropriately The force has effective systems in place to make sure that crimes are allocated to the appropriate personnel. We found that in most areas this was effective, such as the enhanced video response and incident resolution centre, and the local investigations department. But we also found that crimes aren’t always allocated to officers with the appropriate training. For instance, during fieldwork we found response officers were managing complex cases. One was dealing with multiple offences linked to organised crime and another had been allocated a complex fraud investigation. This would have been more suitable for a trained investigator. Also, a lack of resources and skilled detectives means the force can’t always allocate crimes to appropriately skilled officers and staff in other areas, such as its child abuse investigations team. We found that the number of crimes waiting to be allocated varies, and personnel in the child abuse investigations team told us that in the past its queue of crimes had peaked at around 100. Personnel in this team know about the resourcing pressures but don’t see action from senior leaders regarding this. The allocation of crimes often caused wider pressures. Frontline officers and staff told us about queues of crimes awaiting allocation. Investigators told us that allocating crimes was difficult due to a lack of professionalising investigations programme 2 investigators. The force should review its allocation process to assure itself that crimes are allocated to personnel with the appropriate skills, experience and training. It should also make sure that officers and staff have the capacity to manage the volume allocated. Dorset Police

AFI The force still needs to improve how it records equality data The force’s data for victims of crime shows that age and gender are well recorded. But ethnicity is less well recorded and other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded. The force should collect this information to understand how each protected group is affected by crime, how this differs from those without the protected characteristics, and whether a different approach is needed for these victims. Dorset Police

AFI The force should put processes in place to make sure it understands how its officers are using force Dorset Police doesn’t have sufficient internal scrutiny on its use of force to identify opportunities to learn and improve. Supervisors told us that they don’t have a process to review use of force, and that the systems used to record this activity lack investment. Dorset Police don’t effectively monitor when officers use body-worn video to record use of force incidents. The force needs to make sure that there is a sufficiently understood and adhered-to process to review footage where officers record use of force incidents on video. The force told us that supervisors are required to carry out one dip sample a month where an officer uses force, which would result in about 22 reviews per month. At the time of our inspection, approximately 8.4 reviews were taking place per month. We were told that the lack of use of force reviews is because the force can’t get enough sergeants out on the frontline to complete them. Despite some reviews being completed, the results aren’t used by the force to better understand their use of the power. There is no assessment of the circumstances surrounding officers’ use of force; for example, we found a lack of analysis of the officer’s justification for using force. The only analysis is based on statistical data. If the circumstances around use of force are not reviewed, the force won’t identify areas for improvement. The force told us that there have been no improvements implemented because of internal scrutiny. Supervisors should review the footage to make sure interactions are lawful, fair and respectful, and reviews should inform wider scrutiny and learning to improve the force’s understanding of how officers use their powers. The force should make sure that the process of monthly review is consistent to lead the improvements required. And the force should consider how to improve scrutiny at the frontline supervisory level. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to improve how it gathers data on stop and search and use of force We found the IT system that the force uses to record stop and search encounters doesn’t allow officers to record use of force. The force is reliant upon officers completing a separate form. Officers often submit forms with data fields missing. The force is trying to address this by making sure all officers know about the requirements, but in the long term it needs to improve the IT system. The force told us an IT solution would resolve this in early 2025. As a result, Dorset Police doesn’t have sufficient data to support an understanding of when it uses force. And we found that the force understanding of stop and search encounters was incomplete, as some data sets that would provide that understanding weren’t available. For example, in our stop and search audit, which looked at data for the year ending 31 May 2024, we found 308 records with ‘Unknown’ (not stated or refused) self-defined ethnicity. This means that self-defined ethnicity was ‘Unknown’ for 15 percent of records where any self-defined ethnicity information was recorded. It is important that the force gathers accurate data to understand how its officers are using their powers. This will help it to improve performance and allow it to publish correct data. Senior leaders have shared their plans with us which should resolve this problem. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to do more to understand high levels of disproportionality Disproportionality refers to whether different groups of people are affected by police action in different ways. For example, in Dorset in the year ending 31 March 2024, Black or Black British people were 9.4 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people. This is lower than the figure of 13.8 for the previous year but is still higher than the figure of 3.6 across all of England and Wales for the same time period. In the year ending 31 March 2023, people from ethnic minority backgrounds made up 16.9 percent of use of force incidents compared to 11.3 percent of arrests and only 5.9 percent of the local population. This may indicate that the force is using force disproportionately on people from ethnic minority backgrounds. We found that the force records some data on disproportionality and examines that data in internal monitoring meetings. The data is broken down into certain groups, including ethnic background and age. This information is shared with local policing areas so that officers can better understand disproportionality in their area. We saw evidence of actions being taken as a result of this, but we couldn’t see that the force has carried out deep dives into stop and search disproportionality, and we were told that no work had been completed to understand use of force disproportionality. During our audit we found that in 15 percent of the records reviewed, self-defined ethnicity was unknown (not stated or refused). This means that the force is unable to fully understand a complete ethnicity data set for the use of this power. While this is an area that the force is aware of and working to improve, it should make sure that officers record ethnicity data in all stop and search incidents. The force told us that it has implemented a learning package for stop and search, with 80 percent of officers completing the training. It has also carried out ‘Let’s talk about race’ focus groups with a good level of attendance. In the year ending March 2024, there was a thematic assessment of use of force, and those officers using this power against people from an ethnic minority background on a regular basis. This was referred to as ‘Power FEW’, which looks at the submission of use of force, who is using it, where they are using it, and who they are using it against. It also looked at the demographics. The data informing this piece was collected by manually trawling through the existing data, rather than using a system that can extract and present the information more efficiently and, therefore, more frequently. Despite this work, the likelihood of Black or Black British people being stopped and searched remains high in Dorset and the force needs to do more work to address this concern. It is important that the force understands what contributes to disproportionality. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to attend calls for service within its published attendance times The force doesn’t always respond to calls for service within its target timescales. In our victim service assessment, we found that attendance was within the required time in only 46 of the 68 relevant cases we examined. And deployments received effective supervision in 30 of 44 cases we reviewed. If the force isn’t attending incidents within its target times, victims could lose confidence and stop working with the force. Delayed responses can lead to the force missing opportunities to safeguard victims or collect evidence. The force needs to introduce the right levels of oversight to improve how it responds to incidents. Since our victim service assessment, the force has introduced a new system called Initial Contact Enquiry. We saw how this allows officers and staff to better prioritise incidents. Early data given to us by the force shows that attendance times at incidents are improving, and we will continue to monitor the force’s progress in this area. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to make sure it answers emergency calls quickly enough Dorset Police needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls for service. In the year ending 31 August 2024, the force answered 78.7 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was an improvement but still 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 leadership team has focused on performance, and officers and staff are highly motivated. We have seen improvements since our previous inspection in 2021/22. The force is working on improving its 999 responses. Data supplied by the force shows that in December 2024, Dorset Police answered 93 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds, but the BT data shows it was 85.7 percent. This is a good response, but the force must keep it going. We will continue to monitor this performance. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to make sure that there is consistent and effective management of risk within its THRIVE processes During our last inspection in 2021/22, we identified that an area requiring improvement was to identify repeat and vulnerable victims. In response, the force invested in more training for officers and staff, and we saw a significant improvement during our inspection. But while the force has improved the consistency of its threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement (THRIVE) assessments at the initial point of contact, in our victim service assessment we found that a structured triage only took place in 51 out of relevant cases. We also found that the force wasn’t consistently reassessing incidents. And for the assessments that were present, their quality was sometimes poor. Also, officers and staff weren’t sure when additional risk assessments should take place. During our inspection we found that call handlers acted politely, appropriately and ethically when answering calls. They also made effective checks to identify repeat and vulnerable victims. Call handlers graded calls appropriately, and a structured triage was completed and documented in most cases. The force carries out internal quality assurance processes and audits. It has identified the quality of THRIVE assessments as an area that requires additional improvement. Dorset Police

AFI The force needs to make sure it complies with all the requirements of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime We found the force is failing to follow some requirements of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, also known as the Victims’ ode. The ictims’ ode requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. In our victim service assessment, we found that the force complied with the ictims’ ode in only 45 of 70 relevant cases in relation to completing victim contracts. We found examples of officers not following the requirements and not updating victims as often as they should. This means the force doesn’t always provide victims with the right level of support. It should provide enhanced support for victims who are vulnerable or intimidated, persistently targeted or victims of the most serious crimes. The force told us it has introduced templates and prompts for officers to remind them of necessary actions to adhere to all areas of the ictims’ ode. The force told us that this is making improvements. The force needs to make sure it encourages compliance with the ictims’ ode across the force and sufficient improvement is observed. Dorset Police