Readers may remember that last October we published an article about the latest assessment of Surrey’s Fire and Rescue service conducted by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFS).

HMICFS has now just completed its PEEL assessment on Surrey Police. PEEL stands for Police Efficiency, Effectiveness and Legitimacy.

Its report was published in December 2023 and rated our local police force as Good in two categories, Adequate in four, Requires Improvement in two and Inadequate in one category.

Roy Wilshire, H M Inspector of Constabulary, stated in his report, “I have concerns about the performance of Surrey Police in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service. In particular, I have serious concerns about how the force is responding to the public.”

“Surrey has a lower-than-average number of 999 calls and a comparatively low number of 101 calls. But despite this, the force doesn’t always answer emergency and non‑emergency calls in a timely way. A high number of callers to its non-emergency 101 facility abandon their call. Some of these callers will contact the force by another means, such as through its online platform. Other callers will simply give up. So, crime will go unreported and vulnerable people will not be safeguarded.”

He said that this was highlighted as an area for improvement during the last inspection, but performance has deteriorated.

Reporting data about crime was categorised as “Requires Improvement.” This was an area of concern by the Residents Association about understanding and getting a realistic breakdown of crimes in our area. But the Inspector of Constabulary was more concerned about the accuracy of reporting.

He stated, “In our 2018 inspection, we identified that sexual crimes, including crimes of rape, should be recorded without delay and N100 classifications should be used correctly, Surrey Police does not appear to have made sufficient improvements.”

Building and supporting and protecting the workforce was also a concern. The Inspector highlighted three areas for improvement:

  • The force needs to do more to understand the workforce’s well-being needs and tailor accordingly
  • The force needs to do more to instil confidence within the workforce in reporting discrimination, bullying and racist behaviour
  • The force needs to better understand why officers and staff, and particular new recruits, wish to leave the force

This article has highlighted the three inspection sectors with negative findings but there are positives too. Crime prevention and managing offenders are rated as “Good” and four other sectors, investigating crime, supporting vulnerable people, police powers and public treatment and leadership were all rated as “Adequate”.

The Inspector concluded his report with the following comments:

“The force had a change in leadership during our inspection, with the appointment of a new chief constable. The chief constable has made changes to the performance management structure of the force and set out his priorities.

In view of these findings, I have been in contact with the chief constable as I do not underestimate how much improvement is needed. I will be monitoring the progress of the force closely”

We have summarised the key findings of the inspection but residents who wish to read the full report can access it via the link below: