Nottinghamshire Police's crime recording '˜requires improvement'

A criminal justice inspectorate has found that Nottinghamshire Police '˜require improvement' in their crime reporting.
The 12.7 per cent of reported crimes that go unrecorded include crimes such as violence offences and domestic abuse.The 12.7 per cent of reported crimes that go unrecorded include crimes such as violence offences and domestic abuse.
The 12.7 per cent of reported crimes that go unrecorded include crimes such as violence offences and domestic abuse.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services examined crime reports made by Nottinghamshire police from August 2017 to January 2018.They estimated that the force failed to record over 13,800 reported crimes each year. The 12.7 per cent of reported crimes that go unrecorded include crimes such as violence offences and domestic abuse.The report states: “We found that some officers and staff have an insufficient understanding of the crime-recording requirements for common assault, harassment, malicious communications and public order offences. “This is particularly apparent among those officers and staff who have not recently received any crime-recording training. “These errors are further compounded by limited supervision of crime-recording decisions.”Rachel Barber, Deputy Chief Constable said: “Since the inspection in May, we have continued to make progress to address the accuracy of our data. “We have changed our domestic abuse policy and procedure, to make a risk assessment mandatory in all domestic abuse cases. “This removes any ambiguity and ensures a consistent response when supporting victims.“Unfortunately we cannot remove human error from daily business in what is a very complex area, but we are determined to continue to raise standards and get consistency across all of our officers and staff when recording crime. “We have invested in a NCRS (national crime recording standard) compliance team, which supports our control room and increases crime-recording timeliness and compliance.”Paddy Tipping, Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner said: “I think it’s important that any mis-recording of crime does not impact on the services provided to victims and I was reassured to read that the victim is placed at the forefront of crime-recording decisions.“I was pleased to see the report recognise the good leadership in place and the Chief Constable has informed me that significant additional progress has been made since the inspection in May. ”