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Humberside Police is outstanding at preventing crime and protecting vulnerable people, but it needs to improve the way it investigates crime, the police inspectorate has said.

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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Humberside Police

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Humberside Police performance across eight areas of policing. It found the force was ‘outstanding’ in three areas, ‘good’ in four areas and ‘requires improvement’ in one area.

HMICFRS said that while the force has been working hard at preventing and deterring crime, it has also been innovative in its use of technology to become more efficient, freeing up its workforce to focus on its priorities.

The force uses an effective tool called Humber Talking, which gives the community an opportunity to tell the police what they think police priorities should be and the problems they face. Inspectors found that 36 percent of its population (215,000 households) have already registered and are using this tool.

The inspectorate also said that the force continues to identify vulnerability effectively and works well with partners to protect the public. This includes effective work with communities and community safety partners to tackle local problems.

The force has helped other teams around the country introduce the Right Care, Right Person programme. This was developed to reduce the number of mental health incidents it attends and make sure vulnerable people get support from appropriate care professionals. The force has also created My Police Portal to improve updates to victims of crime.

However, the inspectorate said the force needs to improve the way it investigates crime, as it found that some investigations aren’t supervised properly or aren’t thorough enough.

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer yesterday said:

“I congratulate Humberside Police on its performance in keeping people safe, reducing crime and giving victims an effective service. This is thanks to the hard work of officers, staff and volunteers in helping the force to succeed.

“I was pleased to find that the force has kept up its performance in several areas since our last inspection. The force’s data, strategic planning, and governance and performance arrangements help it match resources to the demand it faces. I am particularly impressed with how the force uses technology to become more efficient.

“But to provide a consistently good service, it needs to improve some aspects.

“The force needs to make improvements to the quality and supervision of its investigations. This will make sure victims get the justice they deserve.

“However, I have become concerned about a lack of stability in the chief officer team and among other senior leaders. And I am concerned about how this may negatively affect the force’s performance and culture now and in the future.

“I will be closely monitoring the changes to make sure the force continues to provide a good service to the public.”

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PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of Humberside Police

Notes

• For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 0300 071 6781 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk.
• In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
• We have continued our intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years.
• We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now assess forces against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
• It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
• The report comes at a time of instability in the chief officer team and among other senior leaders which will be monitored in case this negatively affect the force’s performance and culture in the future.
• Read more information about the PEEL assessment framework 2023-2025.