NYP: 3rd Most INACCURATE for Crime Recording

NYP: 3rd Most INACCURATE for Crime Recording

by TIM HICKS

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Introduction

For some time, the NYE has been raising concern about the performance of North Yorkshire Police (NYP).

The NYE has gone further than the mainstream media in North Yorkshire by applying in-depth analysis to the official figures and statements from NYP. This has led to some startling conclusions.

Background

The official assessment of the efficiency of NYP is made annually by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services in its “PEEL” (Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy) Assessments. These assess a police force over three “pillars”.

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Legitimacy

HMIC use four grades to rate these pillars. These are:

• Outstanding
• Good
• Requires Improvement
• Inadequate

The last PEEL Assessment for North Yorkshire Police was for 2017 and it was graded as “Requires Improvement” in the efficiency pillar – a significant drop from the 2016 assessment of “Good”

HMICFRS specified the following areas for improvement:

• The force should develop its understanding of demand, ensuring that it has analysed appropriate information and intelligence from wider sources, including strategic, local and third party data, including demographic analysis.
• The force should ensure that it understands the level of service that can be provided at different levels of costs, so it can identify the optimum level of service provision.
• The force should ensure it has processes in place to review and mitigate the impact that its partner organisations have on demand for its services.
• The force should develop a better understanding of how the benefits of investing and using ICT affect its ability to meet current and likely future demand efficiently, with a view to updating its ICT strategy.

When the 2017 HMICFRS Overall Efficiency assessment for NYP was assessed as “Requires Improvement”, Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain (pictured below) issued a statement that:

“North Yorkshire remains the safest county in England, we are one of only two Forces to have actually reduced crime in this inspection period,”

However, DCC Cain’s statement ignores the fact that NYP has been given a rating of “Inadequate” (the lowest available to the Inspectorate) by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) for crime recording in its 2017 Crime Data Integrity (CDI) Inspection:

“As it stands today, we estimate almost 1 in 5 crimes in North Yorkshire are not properly recorded. This is simply inexcusable.”  

So NYP’s much vaunted reduction in crime was based on a crime figures compiled by NYP that understated crime in North Yorkshire by 20%.

Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain:

“We have actually reduced crime in this [2017] inspection period”

Ignoring that 20 – 25% of crimes committed in North Yorkshire are not recorded.

The NYE has always asserted that if the crime recording had been accurate, or if the findings of the 2017 CDI inspection had been available to the 2017 HMICFRS PEEL inspection, the overall Efficiency & Effectiveness Assessments for NYP would probably have been “Inadequate” (the lowest rating available).

Be that as it may, there has obviously been a major decrease in the performance of NYP. This has never been acknowledged by Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Mulligan or Chief Constable Winward. It has never been covered by the mainstream media.

BBC criticism of NYP

Now in a related matter, West Midlands Police have also had an inadequate HMICFRS CDI inspection. This is covered in this BBC article. What is very interesting about the article is that gives a league table of those forces that are under recording crime.

According to the BBC, NYP is:

1. Now the third worst offending force for understating its crimes in the country, behind Thames Valley (31%) and Lincolnshire (27%).
2. The rate of under recording of crime by NYP is now 25%.

Chief Constable Lisa Winward

Presiding over a force with falling efficiency levels and the third most inaccurate crime recording of any police force in England and Wales

If the BBC is right, then the quality of crime recording by NYP is continuing to deteriorate.

The wider implication of this is that NYP’s crime figures are so wildly inaccurate, that the actual performance of NYP in fighting crime and keeping people safe cannot be assessed accurately.

Whichever way you look at it, this demonstrates a major failure in leadership by the NYP Chief Officer command team and PFCC Mulligan (pictured in lead illustration). It also vindicates the NYE’s determination to raise this issue and continue to keep it in the public eye.

The response of the Chief Constable and PFCC for North Yorkshire

Chief Constable Winward and PFCC Mulligan were provided with a draft of this article and asked for a comment.

• Chief Constable Winward did not respond
• PFCC Mulligan confirmed that she would not comment.

In itself, this is a failure of the duty of both officers to keep the people of North Yorkshire informed and to respond openly to media comment.

PFCC Mulligan may be distracted by other issues. She has recently had allegations of bullying upheld against her by the North Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel (NYPCP). PFCC Mulligan is also currently under investigation by the NYPCP over additional allegations of similar misconduct and also by Conservative Party Headquarters for contravening its Code of Conduct for Elected Candidates.