Sustained improvement in City of London Police’s crime recording practices, confirms report

25 Jul 2019 10:59 AM

The City of London Police’s crime recording arrangements have been graded as ‘good’, according to a new report.

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City of London Police: Crime Data Integrity Inspection 2019

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)’s Crime Data Integrity inspection 2019 report said the force had improved the crime-recording standards over the past five years.

The inspection found for the City of London police:

• 93.8% of reported crimes were recorded;
• 91.8% of reported violent crimes were recorded;
• More than 91.2% of reported sex offences were recorded;
• 7 out of 12 audited rape reports were accurately recorded; and
• 15 out of 17 audited vulnerable victim crimes were recorded.

The Inspectorate praised the force’s commitment to crime recording, noting that there had been a “systemic cultural change” since 2014 throughout all levels of the organisation. Specific improvements included:

• providing enhanced training for officers and staff involved in crime recording decisions;
• implementing strong governance and oversight arrangements for crime recording decisions and processes;
• implementing all the recommendations from HMICFRS’ original 2014 inspection;
• implementing the vast majority of recommendations from the 2014 National Action Plan on crime recording; and
• introducing direct crime recording for when it receives a crime report from the Metropolitan Police Service.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr said:

“Proper crime recording is essential to effective and efficient investigations. Without it, investigators may not have enough information to properly examine a crime. Worse still, a reported crime may fall through the cracks completely, leaving the victim without any access to justice.

“So we are pleased that the City of London police has improved how it records crime over the past five years. It has shown improved recording rates for all types of crime, as well as refinements to its recording processes and training programmes.

“We saw many individual examples of good practice throughout the force, ranging from effective supervision of crime-recording decisions in the control room to a good understanding of recording requirements for modern slavery offences.

There is still room for improvement, however. We estimate that the force is failing to record over 400 crimes a year. In addition, it needs to do more to record all relevant crimes within 24 hours and improve its collection and analysis of equality data. Our report contains a list of recommendations to further improve crime recording practice.

“Given the force’s improvements to date, I am confident that the force will be able to implement these recommendations successfully. It is to be congratulated on the emphasis it has placed on crime recording in the last few years. Victims in the city of London area can be more confident that they will receive an effective service when reporting incidents to the police.”

HMICFRS will continue to inspect crime recording practices in City of London Police at regular intervals.

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City of London Police: Crime Data Integrity Inspection 2019

Notes:

1. HMICFRS is an independent inspectorate, inspecting policing and fire and rescue services in the public interest. It assesses and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces and fire and rescue services.
2. HMICFRS inspects all 45 fire and rescue services in England. It also inspects all 43 police forces in England and Wales together with other major policing and law enforcement bodies. It also publishes data and thematic reports on areas of particular interest.
3. Crime Data Integrity inspections assess an individual police force’s response to reports of crime by the public, and the effectiveness of that response. The inspection includes an audit, which examines the extent to which a force is applying the correct rules, as well as fieldwork.
4. HMICFRS is unable to make direct comparisons with the 2014 inspection due to a change in the methodology used. In particular, the 2014 inspection was a dip-sample of records in each force which contributed to a statistically robust rate for crime-recording accuracy for England and Wales, whereas this inspection is working to a statistically robust standard within each force.
5. For further information, HMICFRS’s press office can be contacted from 8:30am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday on 020 3513 0600.
6. HMICFRS’s out-of-hours press office line for urgent media enquiries is 07836 217729.