Source · HMICFRS

PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Warwickshire Police

9 June 2025 PEEL Force Inspection 2 recommendations 1 causes for concern 19 areas for improvement

PEEL 2023-25 inspection findings for Warwickshire Police

Applicable forces

Causes for concern

Concern Open The force needs to improve how quickly it attends incidents In our 2022 PEEL inspection, we found that Warwickshire Police wasn’t attending incidents within expected timescales. It wasn’t updating victims about delays. The force hasn’t improved in this area and is still failing to meet its own published targets. Our victim service assessment found that the force met its attendance times in only 33 of 68 relevant cases. It informed callers of delays in only 15 of 31 relevant cases. Force data shows an overall decline in performance for both emergency and priority incidents. However, the force didn’t have complete data, particularly in relation to priority incidents. These didn’t always have an arrival time recorded. Attending incidents promptly is important to make sure that evidence is secured and victims and vulnerable people are safeguarded from harm. The force knows it must improve and has established a gold group to oversee the changes needed. But there isn’t yet any improvement from this activity. Warwickshire Police

Recommendations

R5.1 Open Attend calls for service in line with the targets it has published. Warwickshire Police

R5.2 Open Make sure that where there are unavoidable delays, it updates victims and risk assessments. 23. Warwickshire Police

Areas for improvement

AFI The force needs to improve how it records equality data The force’s data for victims of crime shows that while age and gender are well recorded, ethnicity is less well recorded. Other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded. The force should be collecting this information to understand the extent to which each protected group is affected by crime, how this differs from those without protected characteristics and whether a different response is needed for these victims. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to improve how it manages multi-agency risk assessment conferences to safeguard victims and their families According to SafeLives, Warwickshire Police should expect to discuss 880 cases a year at the multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC), based on the size of its population. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force discussed 1,145 cases. The force also told us that it was the largest referring body to MARAC and referred, on average, 54 percent of the cases it discussed. The force is responsible for chairing meetings. We observed MARAC meetings and found the force wasn’t considering all appropriate actions. The MARAC made decisions to accept risk without developing action plans to reduce harm. The force has a MARAC steering group and an operating procedure, but we found that these weren’t always informing practice or driving improvements. At the time of our inspection, the force told us it was reviewing MARAC processes and would implement improvements by April 2025. It needs to make sure that all victims who meet the criteria for safeguarding are provided with the range of interventions MARAC can offer. The force should satisfy itself that partner organisations are fully involved in decisions on the acceptance of risk. It should consider how it monitors the quality of decision-making in this area through the steering group. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should make sure that the central referral safeguarding unit is resourced to meet current and future demand In our 2022 PEEL inspection report, we highlighted that the force central referral safeguarding unit (CRSU) had a backlog of referrals. At that time, we found 70 vulnerable adult cases, 102 child abuse cases and 87 medium-risk domestic abuse cases awaiting full assessment. Since then, the force has made some positive changes. It now reviews all standard risk assessments. And it searches the system daily to identify all risk assessments that haven’t been correctly assigned to the CR U. These measures have, however, increased the team’s workload and assessments are taking longer to be processed by the CRSU. During our inspection work in September and December 2024, we saw that the oldest medium-risk Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment awaiting review was nine days old. On 7 February 2025, the oldest cases were 14 days old. There were 213 medium-risk child cases, 153 medium-risk domestic abuse cases and 53 vulnerable adult cases awaiting review. The force prioritises high-risk cases and only two were awaiting review. However, in total, 574 risk assessments were still awaiting review. We reviewed 20 standard-risk and 30 medium-risk Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment forms. Three of the medium-risk forms involved non-fatal strangulation and other high-risk indicators. The force should have graded these cases as high-risk. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force had categorised around 10 percent of domestic abuse investigations as high-risk. The average for all forces in England and Wales was 21 percent. Incorrectly graded high-risk cases could be in the backlog of referrals and not dealt with as quickly as they should be. Where cases are delayed, the force isn’t sharing information quickly enough with relevant organisations. This prevents vulnerable people from getting the help they need. The force should make sure that the CRSU is appropriately resourced and that team members are prioritising workloads according to risk. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to improve how it communicates with vulnerable victims to improve the service it provides The force has taken steps to understand the views of victims and use these to inform the services it provides. But some of these activities are in the early stages of development. In 2023, the force set up a team to improve its response to vulnerability. It has carried out work to improve police personnel’s understanding of trauma and the effect of victim-blaming language. The Positive Directions group, a Vanguard project, has provided training to 200 frontline officers. The force has focused on making sure the voice of the child is considered and recorded. However, it recognises it still has work to do. Officers working in the force control room’s rapid video response team, which holds video calls with victims so they don’t have to come into the station or have an officer visit their home, don’t always speak to the children of domestic abuse victims. The force told us it planned to improve how it gathers the perspectives of vulnerable victims in 2025. The force is liaising with SafeLives, the charity Refuge and independent domestic violence adviser services to work with the victims of rape and serious sexual offences as well as domestic abuse victims. The force plans to develop this work to create a panel for victims and survivors to feedback their experiences. There are still gaps in how the force collects the views of vulnerable victims and shows how it uses those views to improve its service. The force should make sure this is addressed. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should improve its governance and management of suspects and wanted people The force has limited oversight of standard and medium-risk wanted suspects and the specific risks that they pose to the public. The force doesn’t consistently manage the prioritisation of the arrest of wanted people. Officers told us that the force often didn’t pursue suspects for arrest due to high demand on investigators. At the time of our inspection, the force told us it had 628 outstanding suspects. The force previously had access to a system it shared with West Mercia Police that prioritised standard and medium-risk offenders awaiting arrest or other action. This ended in 2022. The force is still working on a dashboard as its alternative. Additionally, in the year ending 12 October 2020, there were 170 wanted suspects whose details had been circulated on the Police National Computer for more than six months. In the year ending 01 March 2022, this had increased to 274. The force has started to address this. In the year ending 5 June 2024, it reduced the number of wanted suspects to 245. But it still has more work to do to bring that number down further. Some of these offenders are wanted for serious offences, such as violence, homicide and rape. And 78 wanted suspects have been circulated on the Police National Computer for 37 months or longer. This is too high. The force should make sure that it applies enough scrutiny to the prioritisation of suspects. This would reduce the risk of them re-offending and harming the public. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should make sure that all self-generated indecent images of children are uploaded to the national database The child abuse image database contributes to the fight against online child sexual exploitation and abuse. It was developed by the Home Office in collaboration with the police and other industry and technology partners. Warwickshire Police’s policy is that where children make indecent images of themselves, the force can treat it as a safeguarding concern rather than as a criminal matter. If the image has only been sent to one other person, the force doesn’t upload it to the database. The force isn’t following National Police Chiefs’ Council guidance with this approach. It may mean that other offences involving the child aren’t quickly identified. This may mean that the child isn’t appropriately supported and safeguarded. Warwickshire Police shares the staff that grade indecent images of children with West Midlands Police. Warwickshire Police has access to a victim identification officer through this collaboration. It should make sure that this arrangement provides enough support to upload all images to the child abuse image database. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to make sure that all its staff and officers can access its well-being provision Since our last inspection, the force has improved its well-being provision for its workforce. But staff and officers can’t always access it because of varying demand and resourcing across areas and teams. For example, officers in some areas can access gym facilities during their shift, but officers in other areas can’t. taff and officers in some specialist teams told us their well-being was affected by workforce shortages and high demand. They often work long hours. The force needs to demonstrate it clearly understands what factors positively or negatively affect workforce well-being, including the effects of stress. And the force should demonstrate that it uses this information to allocate resources to different areas and teams. In the year ending 31 March 2024, Warwickshire Police had a 3.6 percent rate of long-term sickness absence as a proportion of full-time equivalent police officers. This was higher than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales. High levels of sickness in teams can have a negative effect on remaining staff. The force should make sure it balances operational need with the well-being of staff by equitably distributing resources and access to well-being provisions across all teams as far as possible. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should make sure it understands why officers are leaving the force, in particular new recruits, to improve the support it offers them An increasing number of officers left the force between 2021 and 2024. In the financial year 2021/22, 28 full-time officers left. This rose to 72 in the year 2022/23 and to 84 in the year 2023/24. Several officers told us they planned to leave the force because it was difficult to establish a healthy work-life balance. We carried out a survey of the workforce and found 8.3 percent (47 of 569 respondents) wanted to leave the force as soon as possible and 11.1 percent (63 of 569 respondents) wanted to leave within the next 12 months. We were told that student officers often struggled with the time commitment required to study for their degree alongside the responsibility of an officer’s role. Officers with more than five years’ service told us they were becoming disillusioned, felt the force didn’t value their skills and did little to encourage them to stay. The force has recently taken a problem-solving approach to student officer retention. This appears to be comprehensive, but it hasn’t yet implemented its recommendations. The force recognises that officer attrition has had significant financial implications and is committed to addressing the issue. At the time of our inspection, the force had recently introduced interviews designed to intervene before officers take the decision to leave. Most leavers didn’t have exit interviews. This has affected the force’s ability to understand and address the reasons officers are leaving. The force should make sure it has a full understanding of why officers choose to leave and improve the support given to them to encourage them to stay. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to do more to support the development and career progression of people from under-represented groups The force needs to better understand the barriers that prevent officers and staff from developing and progressing. The force has a positive action strategy but needs to be clearer about how it will achieve the strategy’s objectives. The action plan in support of the strategy doesn’t contain clear actions, action owners or timescales for completion. The force has some initiatives to support officers and staff from under-represented groups to develop. However, not all members of the workforce know about them. The programmes offered are largely external, with some only open to personnel selected to be part of the force’s promotion programme. The force provides many development opportunities for the whole workforce, rather than targeting under-represented groups. The force has trained some supervisors on helping officers and staff from under-represented groups to progress their careers. However, overall awareness of how to support this part of the workforce is inconsistent and limited. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to make sure its governance processes effectively oversee and manage strategic risks Since our last inspection, the force has reviewed its performance framework and adopted a pillar-based structure aligned with its ‘Fit for the future’ strategy. Despite these changes, we found that strategic risk management processes weren’t always effective. When a force identifies a significant risk to maintaining performance or providing services, it records it on the force risk register. This process is designed to make sure that any action taken to reduce the risk is recorded and senior leaders can oversee progress and make decisions when needed. But we found that the force had identified and recorded some risks that remained unresolved for considerable periods of time. These included concerns that the new operational model might not be a success and the backlogs in the investigation management unit. The force must review its governance processes to make sure it identifies and addresses all strategic risks and operational issues much more effectively. This will help it to anticipate and respond to changes in demand and risks more effectively. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to make sure it uses relevant analysis and data to operate more effectively and efficiently The force has access to a large range of performance and management information. It has systems to supply that information effectively. But the force doesn’t make the best use of its data to understand productivity or areas for improvement performance. It is still using spreadsheets and other manual processes to gather, record and supply information in areas such as resource management. The spreadsheets produced to monitor and improve performance are inconsistent. The force isn’t using data consistently to manage workloads, monitor and address backlogs of work or plan for the future. An example of this is the force not making the best use of the force management statement to support its planning processes. We found that this document didn’t contain enough detail or data to support its statements, assumptions and projections about future risks. The force should improve its processes for recording, checking and understanding its data to improve productivity. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to improve how it records crime when antisocial behaviour is reported The force is failing to record all crimes when antisocial behaviour is reported by victims. We examined 50 incidents. Of these, 32 crimes should have been recorded, but only 21 were recorded. Victims of antisocial behaviour are often subjected to abuse and torment for substantial periods of time, and crime is often committed by their neighbours. Failing to record crimes and provide an effective service to tackle antisocial behaviour can mean victims live in fear in their own homes. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should manage demand more effectively by having the right resources, processes and plans to meet current and future demands The force needs to make sure that its operating model and workforce planning process can identify where it needs additional resources. And it needs to make sure that it provides resources to meet current and future demands across all areas. In our 2022 PEEL inspection, we identified the force’s operating model as an area for improvement. The force introduced a new operating model in 2023, but we still found some areas that faced demands that exceeded their capacity. The force’s failure to fully address that area for improvement continues to negatively affect its performance and the service it provides. The force has planned changes, and these should take effect later in 2025. For example, at the time of our inspection, the force had backlogs in the investigation management unit. We also found delays in the crime control centre, which took up to three weeks to process its work. The central referral and safeguarding unit had 574 cases awaiting review. We were told that the unit often relied on overtime to meet its normal daily demands. We also found that in some specialist areas, such as investigations, the force hadn’t provided the trained staff they needed. We identified this as an area for improvement during our last inspection. Response officers working 12-hour shifts told us that they had to regularly work overtime to meet demand towards the end of their shifts because there was no overlap between teams. The force needs to make sure it is more responsive to changing demands to meet them more effectively. It must assure itself that it has the right number of people with the right skills in the right places to provide its services without relying on overtime to create the additional capacity. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to improve its understanding of disproportionality in the use of police powers Disproportionality refers to whether certain groups of people are affected by police action in a way that is substantially different from people not of that group. Many forces provide officers with cultural awareness training to improve policing for ethnic minority groups and improve trust and confidence within communities. At the time of our inspection, Warwickshire Police hadn’t provided this training to all officers. It does provide training in adaptive communication techniques and cultural awareness for new officers joining through the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship. For the year ending 31 March 2024, the force carried out 1,252 stop and searches. During that period, the force was 5.7 times more likely to stop Black or Black British people compared with White people. The national average is 3.6. For the year ending 31 March 2024, 19.3 percent of Warwickshire Police’s use of force incidents involved people from ethnic minority backgrounds. People from ethnic minority backgrounds represent 14.3 percent of the force’s arrests and 10.9 percent of the local population. A higher use of force compared with arrests and population data could indicate that force is being used more frequently on people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The force has taken action to improve its understanding of disproportionality. For the year ending 31 March 2024, we found that ethnicity wasn’t recorded in 22 percent of stop and searches. The force has introduced an app that mandates officers to record self-defined ethnicity on stop and search forms on mobile devices. This has reduced the number of forms where officers didn’t record ethnicity to 8 percent in January 2025. The force examines data on disproportionality and has developed a new methodology to help it understand disproportionality better. The force told us this would include a more detailed analysis of recorded incidents to understand when officers have used powers as part of planned events or operations. The force says it will check that individual officers aren’t stopping more people from ethnic minority backgrounds than others. It also plans to better analyse census population data to understand differences in proportionality in different areas. At the time of our inspection, this work was still in the early stages. We will continue to monitor the force’s progress in this area. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should improve its external scrutiny processes for stop and search and use of force In our 2022 PEEL inspection report, we said the force should improve its external scrutiny of stop and search and use of force to make sure the powers are being used fairly and appropriately. This remains an area for improvement. Community scrutiny of police powers can provide opportunities for the police to understand communities’ concerns and take steps, where appropriate, to improve policies, procedures and practices. The College of Policing’s authorised professional practice for community scrutiny states that scrutiny panels should reflect the diversity of their local areas, including age, ethnicity, gender and social class. Panel members do represent communities. However, we found that they don’t receive enough training to allow them to function independently. The force allows members to give feedback both during the panel meeting and anonymously after the meeting. But it should make sure that all panel members feel able to contribute during the meeting. The force holds quarterly scrutiny panels to examine both stop and search and use of force. In 2024, the panels reviewed ten use of force incidents and nine stop search incidents in total for the year. This is too few. It undermines the panels’ ability to provide effective challenge that could lead to improved practice. Most officers we spoke to were unaware that the scrutiny panels existed. The panels hadn’t given them any feedback on the quality of their interactions with the public. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should improve how it manages early opportunities to gather evidence and the handover of investigations During our inspection, investigating officers told us that the information handed over by officers responding to an incident was often poor quality with important statements and evidence missing. System backlogs meant that for most of 2024, it took the force up to four weeks to allocate crimes for further investigation. This made it critical that evidence was gathered when the force first attended an incident. The force needs to make sure that control room call handlers consistently give evidence preservation advice. It should also make sure that it allows officers enough time to complete initial enquiries when they attend incidents. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force needs to make sure that it takes all investigative opportunities and minimises investigation delays Warwickshire Police doesn’t always complete investigations in a timely way. It doesn’t always follow all appropriate lines of enquiry. In 69 of 82 cases we examined, the force followed all appropriate and proportionate investigative opportunities from the reporting of a crime and throughout the investigation. And we found unjustified delays to the investigation in 16 of 100 cases. Overall, we judged 85 of 100 investigations to be effective. We saw that high demand was creating backlogs of work in administrative and supervisory teams. The force told us that these issues delayed the allocation and progression of investigations for 21 days on average. Following its initial attendance at an incident, the force often doesn’t give victims meaningful updates, crime investigations aren’t progressed and suspects aren’t dealt with. Patrol officers told us that they were struggling to carry out thorough investigations due to ongoing pressure to attend incidents. The force has made recent changes to its operating model that are aimed at addressing these issues. It should make sure that these delays don’t happen in future. Warwickshire Police

AFI The force doesn’t always achieve the right outcomes for victims of crime Warwickshire Police doesn’t always achieve acceptable outcomes for victims because it doesn’t solve enough of the crimes it investigates. The force needs to understand this issue and improve its outcomes. In the year ending 30 September 2024, Warwickshire Police recorded 34,073 victim-based crimes. Of these recorded offences, the force assigned 8.5 percent an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales. The number of offenders charged with offences across England and Wales has been decreasing for a notable period. Despite Warwickshire Police having a higher percentage of ‘offender charged’ outcomes than some forces, the proportion of cases where it achieves a good outcome for the victim remains low. In the year ending 30 September 2024, 0.6 percent of victim-based crime was closed with the outcome ‘prosecution time limit expired’. This is higher than the average for forces in England and Wales for which data was available. This could indicate that the force doesn’t progress investigations quickly enough for summary-only offences (which are tried in a magistrate’s court within six months from the date of the offence). We found evidence of delays to investigations. The force must continue to improve its outcomes to support and protect victims and bring offenders to justice. 31 Mar 201 30 un 201 30 ep 201 31 ec 201 31 Mar 2016 30 un 2016 30 ep 2016 31 ec 2016 31 Mar 201 30 un 201 30 ep 201 31 ec 201 31 Mar 2018 30 un 2018 30 ep 2018 31 ec 2018 31 Mar 2019 30 un 2019 30 ep 2019 31 ec 2019 31 Mar 2020 30 un 2020 30 ep 2020 31 ec 2020 31 Mar 2021 30 un 2021 30 ep 2021 31 ec 2021 31 Mar 2022 30 un 2022 30 ep 2022 31 ec 2022 31 Mar 2023 30 un 2023 30 ep 2023 31 ec 2023 31 Mar 2024 30 un 2024 30 ep 2024 Warwickshire Police

AFI The force should improve its governance processes and performance data insight to make sure it identifies and addresses risks to vulnerable people We found that the force’s processes caused crimes to be held in queues for allocation while it carried out administrative and supervisory reviews. These reviews added on average a 21-day delay to the allocation of investigations. During this time, often nobody was progressing the investigation as it was no longer in the attending officer’s workload. To address this, the force introduced a process for investigators to ‘register an interest’ in investigations. This meant the crime remained in the attending officer’s workload until the force allocated the crime to an investigator. But the force hadn’t consistently communicated this process to frontline officers. We found that around half of the crimes in the backlog had no registered interest. We also found cases where officers had added and then removed a registered interest. Response officers told us that they prioritised attendance at emergency incidents. Due to demand, they had little opportunity to progress the crimes for which they had registered an interest. The force didn’t do enough to make sure the victims of crimes in the backlog were protected from further harm. The force reassured us that no high-risk offences were in the backlog. However, we found the force made limited checks to make sure this was the case. We found cases where the force hadn’t safeguarded victims and cases where it hadn’t tried to arrest perpetrators, including perpetrators of domestic abuse. This was a significant concern and an ongoing risk to victims. The force addressed this during our inspection by increasing resources in the teams responsible for clearing the backlog. It removed the backlog in early 2025, with most crimes being allocated to investigators. This is positive. But the force didn’t manage the risk to victims between summer 2024 and early 2025, even though the problem was put on the force risk register in summer 2024. The force has a strategy to support vulnerable people and a governance structure to oversee it. But as this example demonstrates, it is often unclear how these structures guide operational priorities and improved performance. The force needs to make sure that its governance structures are good enough to fully understand and address risks to vulnerable victims so it can act quickly to address them. Warwickshire Police