Member Article

Northumbria Police is best in country

Northumbria Police is the only force in the country to achieve the top score for how it monitors and manages the recording of crime. The force’s methods received an ‘excellent’ rating in a survey by the Welsh Audit Office measuring how forces manage and collect data.The force also topped a league table of how 43 forces in England and Wales record crime data in a report compiled by the Audit Commission. 35 police forces and authorities met the Commission’s minimum crime recording requirement of 90 per cent compliance but Northumbria was the only one to achieve an excellent rating. The report highlights the way Northumbria Police supports victims of domestic violence and racial incidents, praising a call-handling system it uses to gather information from victims. In another case study the Commission praised the ‘culture of quality’ which operates throughout the force.Audit Commission Chief Executive Steve Bundred said: “Accurate, timely and reliable data is vital in reducing crime and making communities safer. Improvement over the last three years has been significant with the vast majority of police forces and authorities now rated as good or excellent for data quality. “But there is still work to be done. Only one force (Northumbria) has achieved an excellent rating for its management arrangements and a small number of forces have failed to improve or even deteriorated since the last audit in 2004. Some forces are achieving a higher rating by checking data too much instead of making sure they record crimes correctly first time.” Two forces - Hampshire and Avon and Somerset - were rated as ‘poor’ for their management arrangements.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .