Innovation and 999 performance praised in Bedfordshire Police's latest HMICFRS inspection

Innovative practice and ‘significant improvements’ in 999 call answering performance have been picked out for praise by inspectors in the latest report into Bedfordshire Police.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) highlighted the work of the force with Amazon Web Services to utilise technology and artificial intelligence in investigating crime and keeping people safe.

The inspectorate also commended work being done to reach young people to prevent knife crime particularly with communities in Luton, and significant improvements to its performance answering 999 and 101 calls.

The findings were part of the HMICFRS PEEL report which measures Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy inspection (PEEL).

Bedfordshire Police assessed as Good in recording crime, adequate across seven areas and Requiring Improvement in investigating crime. The force was previously assessed as Good at tackling serious and organised crime following another recent inspection.

Alongside innovation, HMICFRS also praised the force for:

• Its approach to tackling Male Violence Against Women and Girls – including an increase in Clare’s Law referrals (up to 251 from 73 ‘right to know’ applications).
• Work engaging young people about knife crime which has seen workshops delivered to more than 300 people and a messaging reaching a further 79,000 through social media advertising.
• Improvements in its Force Control Room answering 999 and 101 calls.
• Increased use of Sexual Risk Orders and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (increasing from 55 to 104).

Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst KPM said: “The PEEL inspections are a great way to assess how we are performing and identify areas for improvement.

“This report makes clear that Bedfordshire is a well-led force which is on the front foot despite our financial challenges. Those challenges are documented in the report, showing our funding is at the lower end of police forces across England and Wales, despite facing the same demand of incidents and calls.

“It also highlights the brilliant work being carried out by our people and we will continue to invest in their wellbeing and development.

“The report recognises the positive work being carried out in Bedfordshire including our focus on innovation, prevention work around knife crime and our huge improvements in our 999 performance with calls now answered within an average of just five seconds.

“There is also mention of the work we are doing to tackle male violence against women and girls.

“Since the inspection we have already made good progress against the areas identified for improvement – such as increasing our solved rates, retaining and training more detectives, and introducing new dashboards to rank our outstanding suspects in order of threat and risk. We will continue to develop our processes and people to ensure we are giving the best service possible to the public."