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I've been thinking a lot about this @HMICFRS report, wondering about 2 Qs in particular: (1) How representative is Apr-Jun 2020, as the first wave of Covid raged (and did HMIC check)? (2) How many *safeguarding failures* actually occurred?
1/ https://twitter.com/gmhales/status/1336979675625775104
1/ https://twitter.com/gmhales/status/1336979675625775104
On (1) I'm told c. *1/3* of GMP were off at the time, and the crime rec audit function was v limited. On (2) I'm told by contacts in other forces that much of the 'under-recording' typically relates to offences that either are additional to one where an investigation and >
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> safeguarding are already in place (eg disclosure of further offences), or are very marginal cases that are unlikely to ever progress (eg not being screened in for investigation), such as calls to a fight where on police arrival there is no-one present.
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My instinct is that the public interest relates primarily to the safeguarding question. Beyond this, there is a view that crime counts must be 100% complete for intel and resource allocation purposes. But of course, forces don't rely solely on rec crime for either.
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I feel like @HMICFRS need to give us a better insight into the gap between what forces record and 100%, including typical as well as egregious examples.
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Moreover, we know that much crime is never reported to the police in the first place, including around 40% of domestic violence and burglary occurrences. 100% of 60% is still 60% - hence the need to rely on other sources for deployment decisions etc. https://twitter.com/gmhales/status/1331570762940092422?s=19
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I've been thinking about the Q of crime recording for years and I'm still not convinced the current approach to inspections has got the balance right.
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That relates to a further point, an allegation I've heard police officers make a number of times: that there is more scrutiny of crime recording than crime investigations and as the former has grown in importance, the latter has been allowed to slip.
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Now that may be people being selective with their facts to have a dig at HMIC - I honestly don't know. But I do know that policing isn't always v good at keeping all of its plates spinning at the same time, and will always focus on those where scrutiny is most acute.
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The best crime recording in the world counts for very little if justice doesn't follow. https://twitter.com/gmhales/status/1324390114513068034?s=19
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Back to crime recording, I'm told all of the highest compliance forces have a centralised and specialist function. GMP doesn't yet, but is (already) moving in that direction. Expecting the front line to always get the detail right is a big ask.
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Don't believe me? You've obviously never read the National Crime Recording Standards and the Home Office Counting Rules for Recorded Crime. #crimestats https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counting-rules-for-recorded-crime
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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