Information

The effective investigation of crime is fundamental to the legitimacy of policing and to public confidence. It also influences how safe people feel and it prevents future offending. There has been a long-term decline in successful prosecutions, meaning that too few criminal investigations are leading to justice for victims.

Therefore, as part of HMICFRS’s 2022–25 programme of inspections, they inspected how effectively the police investigate crime. During their inspection, they saw numerous examples of initiatives forces have introduced to improve the standard of crime investigations and achieve better outcomes for victims. In this report, HMICFRs make 11 recommendations.

These recommendations are designed to help forces improve the standard of their crime investigations and achieve better outcomes for victims by:

• building a better understanding of their crime-related demand and the resources they need so they can meet it;
• designing more effective processes for recording, assessing, allocating and investigating crime, putting victims at the heart of the process;
• providing better training for investigators, their supervisors, and any other officers or members of staff who have a role in an investigation; and
• improving the supervision of crime investigations.

The report can be read here – An inspection into how effectively the police investigate crime (HTML)

The report can be downloaded here – An inspection into how effectively the police investigate crime (PDF document)

PFCC Comment

“The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire notes with interest this report. Sadly this report comes as no surprise and demonstrates a seeming inability in policing at his time to effectively train staff to investigate crime, manage it or deal with it effectively or give it the priority it deserves over other functions of policing. Too often this and the impact that this can have on public trust and confidence is sadly overlooked and not recognised.”