Source · HMICFRS

PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Norfolk Constabulary

23 September 2024 PEEL Force Inspection 12 areas for improvement

PEEL 2023-25 inspection findings for Norfolk Constabulary

Applicable forces

Areas for improvement

AFI The constabulary needs to make sure that use of force is accurately recorded, and that it takes steps to address disproportionate use and injuries to the person subjected to use of force In the year ending 31 March 2023, Norfolk Constabulary recorded 8,341 use of force incidents. This was an 8.5 percent increase compared with the previous year. But this was still 8,929 fewer than we estimate should have been recorded, based on the number of arrests during this period. This may mean that the constabulary still isn’t recording all its use of force incidents. People from ethnic minority backgrounds account for 5.3 percent of the local population in Norfolk, but we found that they account for 8.5 percent of use of force incidents. This could be because officers are using force disproportionately and more frequently on people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Data shows that in the year ending 31 March 2023, Norfolk Constabulary was an outlier for subject injuries. 8.1 percent of its use of force incidents resulted in the subject being injured compared to the average of 5.1 percent across forces in England and Wales. The constabulary needs to better understand this data and take steps to address any identified issues. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to make sure all personnel responsible for managing sexual and violent offenders should receive training in specialist digital tools so they can manage risk effectively Management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) personnel have limited confidence in using Cyacomb. This is a digital tool which can scan large quantities of digital content. As a result of their limited confidence, personnel aren’t making use of it. Instead, they are reviewing devices manually without the necessary training or skills to do so effectively. This means the constabulary could be missing information that would help safeguard potential victims and could also be missing opportunities to gather evidence for prosecutions. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary must make sure supervisors have the necessary training and skills to carry out their role We found some sergeants weren’t skilled or confident in managing the welfare of their teams or challenging inappropriate behaviour. They told us they hadn’t been trained in people management. One sergeant had a team member who was self-harming. The sergeant said they were expected to give this person welfare support, both on and off duty, but felt they didn’t have the skills to do so. The constabulary expects sergeants to attend the Stripes course. The course covers important skills needed to be an effective operational supervisor, such as managing critical incidents, managing investigations, managing people and supporting team well-being. The constabulary told us it is working on aligning the course with the College of Policing’s national leadership standards. The constabulary should make sure first-line leaders attend the Stripes course as soon as possible. It hopes that once all sergeants have attended the course, they will be effectively equipped and trained, and feel more confident in supporting their teams, individuals and communities. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary should do more to manage and address demand The constabulary needs to develop more effective approaches to how it identifies and addresses various forms of demand. For example, the constabulary is aware of ‘failure demand’ arising from calls coming into the control room from people wanting an update or chasing a delayed response. But the constabulary needs to do more work to address the actual causes of this demand. The constabulary also needs to develop more sustainable approaches to how it addresses sources of external demand. For example, some calls from the public don’t result in an incident or crime being recorded. The constabulary has some understanding about the underlying causes for these demands. But it is managing them by investing additional resources in its switchboard function. This will help to prevent some call demands being placed on the control room. But the constabulary needs to make sure it fully understands the underlying causes for these demands, so it can take appropriate and sustainable action to reduce them. This will also help it to reduce demand in all areas and provide a more efficient service to the public. The constabulary told us it has identified some areas where it could be more efficient, such as constant observation of a person detained in custody and dealing with missing people. It is commissioning exploratory work to make improvements. This will help the constabulary save money and be more productive. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to attend calls for service within its own set attendance times In the 82 cases we examined, only 49 cases had a response to the incident that was within the required attendance time (whether downgraded or not). Delayed responses can lead to the constabulary missing opportunities to safeguard victims or collect evidence. The constabulary needs to introduce the right levels of oversight to improve how it responds to incidents. It also needs to improve the way it prioritises its response to incidents, and how quickly it responds. If the constabulary doesn’t understand how good it is at answering calls and responding to incidents, it will find it more difficult to improve the service it provides. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to reduce the number of non-emergency calls the caller abandons because they aren’t answered The constabulary told us that, in the year ending 31 March 2024, 21.9 percent of calls to its non-emergency 101 number were abandoned by callers before they were answered. As set out in the National Police Chiefs’ Council 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance, forces with a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate lower than 5 percent. High abandonment rates for non-emergencies may mean callers go on to make inappropriate calls to the 999 system. It also means a force has a degree of risk that isn’t understood or addressed, as the content of any abandoned call and the risk it may have contained is unknown. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to make sure that investigations are allocated to officers and teams with sufficient skills and experience to carry out quality investigations In our previous 2020/21 inspection, we identified the constabulary’s new crime allocation policy as innovative practice. This had a risk-based approach and included principles of professional, victim-centred discussion. In our 2023–25 inspection, we found that the way this policy has been interpreted has unfortunately led to delays in allocations, among other problems. Supervisors from different teams are spending a lot of time discussing and negotiating with each other as to which team will take on crimes that need allocating, with the criminal investigation department appearing to have the final say. The current interpretation of the policy is generating inconsistencies in the crime types allocated to both response and district crime units. Young and inexperienced officers are working on complex cases beyond their skill set. We also found confusion between teams about what they were expecting to investigate and how any perceived inappropriate crime allocations could be resolved. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims The constabulary 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 reasons for this and work to achieve better outcomes for victims. In the year ending 31 December 2023, Norfolk Constabulary recorded 51,115 victim-based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 14.7 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This was the highest outcome rate for offences brought to justice compared to other forces in England and Wales. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary should increase its consideration and use of preventative orders to safeguard vulnerable people in appropriate cases and alongside bail In our previous inspection in 2 2 /2 , we identified the constabulary’s use of Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) and Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) as an area for improvement. In the year ending 30 September 2023, Norfolk Constabulary recorded 11,427 domestic abuse-related crimes, and made DVPO applications in 0.3 percent of these crimes. This DVPO application rate was one of the lowest rates across forces in England and Wales. Norfolk Constabulary only considers DVPOs for high-risk cases. This is contrary to the aim of DVPNs and DVPOs, which is to reduce the ongoing risk of violence for all victims of domestic abuse, not just those that are at high risk. During our 2023–25 inspection, we found some cases where orders hadn’t been considered or approved by a senior officer. The constabulary’s own audit of finalised domestic abuse cases showed a decline in the use of protective orders and notices in preference for police bail. But the constabulary does have clear processes for monitoring the orders it obtains. The constabulary’s current approach means that opportunities to protect vulnerable victims are being missed. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary should improve its governance and oversight of all domestic abuse incidents to make sure it maximises the opportunity to reduce harm to all vulnerable victims It is important that officers attending a domestic abuse-related incident assess the potential risk of serious harm to the victim. To do this, they complete a risk assessment questionnaire and carry out research to identify any previous domestic abuse. They then grade risk levels as high, medium or standard. The constabulary has a domestic abuse safeguarding team that completes specialist secondary risk assessments for cases assessed as medium or high-risk. It makes sure victims are referred to the right agency, such as social services, and that any safeguarding measures are put in place. But it doesn’t carry out these assessments for standard-risk cases, meaning vulnerable adults and children aren’t being referred to relevant partner agencies at the first opportunity. The constabulary’s processes for standard-risk cases aren’t audited or scrutinised to make sure the risk to vulnerable people is managed appropriately. The system has no automated process or guidance on how repeat incidents should be considered for raising from standard to medium-risk. Officers decide on a case-by-case basis. This means that a victim considered high-risk in relation to a previous incident may be left as standard-risk and the constabulary won’t know. The current process means the constabulary may not fully understand the risk within domestic abuse cases graded standard-risk, or if it is doing enough to keep vulnerable people safe. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to make sure its multi-agency safeguarding hub has enough trained personnel to manage current and future demand In our previous inspection in 2020/21, we found the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) had a backlog of around 400 medium-risk domestic abuse cases. The constabulary had recently introduced a new risk-based matrix to prioritise these backlog cases according to risk levels. Despite this, during our 2023–25 inspection we found there were still backlogs in medium-risk cases, which ranged from 162 to 268 cases. The constabulary told us the backlog can be as high as 500 cases. Norfolk Constabulary

AFI The constabulary needs to reduce the ratio of offenders to offender managers At the time of our inspection, the constabulary had a high ratio of offenders to offender managers. This ratio was 63:1. 26 percent of these were high-risk offenders. Authorised professional practice says an offender manager shouldn’t have a caseload of more than offenders and less than 20 percent of them should be high-risk offenders. Although the constabulary has a plan in place to address this, at the time of our inspection, numbers were still high. The constabulary needs to continue to focus on this issue. If workloads are high, the constabulary may miss opportunities to manage offenders. It may also increase the risk of further reoffending and the risk to the community. Norfolk Constabulary