A report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which examined a year ago how serious organised crime is tackled across the country, has found that Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is inadequate at tackling serious and organised crime.
The inspector found that over the last ten years the constabulary had steadily reduced its intelligence function due to budget cuts and that there isn’t sufficient intelligence resource to consistently meet operational demand.
Improvement plan delivered
However, the Deputy Chief Constable, Sam de Reya, explains that since that inspection a year ago, they have delivered an improvement plan to strengthen their approach to serious and organised crime.
Report’s findings
The HMICFRS report states:
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary needs to make sure it fully understands the threats from serious and organised crime affecting its communities, and share information about serious and organised crime across the workforce.
During our inspection, we identified several concerns relating to the collection and analysis of intelligence and how intelligence is shared. This affects how the constabulary understands and prioritises serious and organised crime (SOC) threats. We include more information about the evidence we gathered about this in the body of the report under the headings of:
- The constabulary should make sure that it has enough intelligence personnel to understand SOC threats.
- The constabulary should make sure it has enough personnel to process intelligence reports.
- The constabulary should make sure that its workforce understands that SOC is a priority and that information about SOC threats is widely shared.
de Reya: Inspection took place over a year ago during a significant period of change
Deputy Chief Constable Sam de Reya, told OnTheWight,
“The force welcomes the independent view provided by HMICFRS following the inspection in 2023 and their findings focussed on the delivery of an even better service for the public. The overall grading of the regional inspection was good, which Hampshire & the Isle of Wight Constabulary are a key part of.
“The force inspection took place over a year ago during a significant period of change involving a new focus and operating model led by the newly appointed Chief Constable Scott Chilton. In the time between the inspection and the publication of this report, we have delivered an improvement plan to strengthen our approach to serious and organised crime.
“This has run alongside a force-wide restructure to provide greater autonomy and accountability to local policing teams including the introduction of Local Bobbies and neighbourhood enforcement teams to enhance proactive policing and the relentless pursuit of criminals.
“We have created a specialised Intelligence and Serious and Organised Crime Command and, with the support of our Police and Crime Commissioner, secured a £1 million investment to create an enhanced intelligence capability; a function that had been reduced over a number of years during austerity.
“At the time of the force inspection changes were in the early stages of implementation. The Inspectorate was not able to properly assess the impact of these changes on our service delivery and the improvements could not be taken into account in the inspection report.
“I am confident that were the review to happen now, things would be different. The force has achieved significant convictions against organised crime groups and is constantly working to make sure those who bring the most harm to our communities are pursued and put before the courts. Alongside this, we have also secured successful confiscations, asset seizures and fines.
“We are committed to tackling the scourge of drugs brought into local communities through County Lines, with a dedicated team responsible for shutting down drugs lines and protecting victims.
“The Chief Constable set clear priorities when he joined in February 2023 to relentlessly pursue criminals, put victims first and provide exceptional local policing. Our officers, staff and volunteers are working extremely hard every day to deliver on these for their communities. I am confident that we are robustly preventing and tackling those who cause serious harm in our communities and we will continue to build our capability to fight serious and organised crime across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”
Good at tackling serious and organised crime across the South East
The inspection looked at how well Regional Organised Crime Units and forces work together to tackle serious organised crime. This included the inspection of Thames Valley Police, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, Sussex Police and Surrey Police, as well as the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit.
An overall rating of ‘Good’ was awarded to the region.
Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Bonniface, head of SEROCU, said,
“We are pleased that it has been recognised that we are good at tackling serious and organised crime across the South East.
“SEROCU works across the four counties to ensure the safety of our communities and to disrupt serious organised crime and the harm it causes to so many people.”
Read the report
The report can be found in full on the HMICFRS website.
