'Inadequate': 25% of violent crime not being correctly recorded by Greater Manchester Police

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling

A new report reveals that 25% of violent crime is not being correctly recorded by Greater Manchester Police. Whilst there has been significant improvement since 2014, in total, 15% of all crimes are still not being recorded.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) rated GMP as 'inadequate' having independently assessed GMP's policing across activity from neighbourhood teams to serious crime and the fight against terrorism to test whether crimes are being recorded by the police when they should be and categorised correctly.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Dru Sharpling said: “Greater Manchester Police has been graded as inadequate following our inspection into the accuracy of crime recording. We have made a number of recommendations to help the force achieve greater accuracy in recording crimes and ensuring victims receive the best possible service.

“Despite making some progress following our 2014 inspection, the force is failing some victims of crime. We estimate that the force fails to record over 38,000 reported crimes each year. The reported crimes that go unrecorded include serious crimes, such as violence and sexual offences. The failings are often a consequence of a lack of knowledge on the part of the officers and staff as to their responsibilities for crime-recording; including the cancellation of recorded crime records.

“I expect the force to make progress against the areas for improvement we identified in this report and I will monitor this progress.”

The report highlights that one of the most significant reasons for GMP’s poor performance is inadequate IT systems.

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said: "We recognise that there is still more work to do to ensure that we are where we want to be. One of the key developments will be the introduction of a new IT system that will allow officers to record crime at the first contact. So when the victim rings us to report a crime, it will automatically be recorded. This is a major step forward and should be in place within the next 12 months.

"Reviewing the way crime is recorded is important but it is the service that victims get that is the priority. Many victims of crime are satisfied with the service they receive, even when the crime is not recorded properly and the report doesn't highlight this. Whilst there are some unacceptable crime recording failings, many are simply administrative issues and do not mean we have failed the victim. A significant amount of activity has taken place to address these administrative problems and we will continue to work hard to address this. It is important to recognise that there is nothing in the report to suggest that the integrity of officers and staff is in question.

"Overall, although we still need to improve, the progress we have made is really encouraging and further continues, including training for officers and the focus on introducing the new IT system."

Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “It is vital that police record crime properly, and it is right that GMP’s performance in this area is rigorously scrutinised, so I welcome this inspection report.

“It highlights the significant improvements that have been made in recording crime - the recording rate now sits at more than 85%, up from 68% in 2014 but clearly GMP’s crime recording processes are still not good enough. The people of Greater Manchester will – quite rightly – not accept any part of their police service to be inadequate, so I have told the chief constable I expect the recommendations to be implemented swiftly and will be monitoring progress.”

Summary of inspection findings

The force has made some progress with its crime-recording processes since our 2014 report. In particular, we found that:

• The force has made progress with implementing changes recommended in the 2014 report, and as a result has completed some of these recommendations.
• The force has also made good progress against the action plan, developed by the national policing lead on crime statistics following the 2014 report, and which all forces have been asked to implement. These include improvements to the force’s use of out-of-court disposals (i.e. cautions and community resolutions) and to the level of its audit of crime-recording decisions.
• The force crime registrar (FCR) – responsible for oversight of crime-recording arrangements – has completed a national College of Policing course for FCRs and is now fully accredited for the role. His work is supported by the deputy chief constable and a small number of staff.

Despite these advances, the force’s performance in respect of crime-recording is inadequate in the following areas:

The force is currently under-recording too many reports of crime, including: 

• Reports of rape.
• Violent crimes.
• Sexual offences (excluding rape).

The force needs to act promptly to improve the accuracy of its recording of these reports and to provide all victims with the service to which they are entitled and deserve.

• Reports of crime reported directly to public protection investigation units (PPIUs) are not always being recorded.
• The force is incorrectly cancelling some recorded sexual offences (excluding rape), and offences of robbery and violence.
• The FCR provides information to local policing divisions on crime-recording performance, including individual feedback for officers and staff. However, not all divisions are providing this feedback to their officers and staff.
• The FCR and his team do not have sufficient capacity to efficiently and effectively audit and scrutinise crime-recording decisions.
• The force must improve its collection of information regarding the effect of criminality on identifiable groups within communities.

Some of these failings are a consequence of officers and staff not understanding their responsibilities for crime-recording, including the cancellation of recorded crime records. They are, in addition, underpinned by limited supervision by the force to support officers and staff in making good and prompt crime-recording decisions.

Areas for improvement 

• The force should formalise how it provides feedback to staff regarding their crime-recording decisions by introducing common practices across all areas of the force to ensure this is done.
• The force should immediately take steps to ensure that when it cancels a recorded crime, it always informs the victim of this decision.
• The force should immediately improve how it collects diversity information from victims of crime and how it uses this to inform its compliance with its equality duty.
• The force should immediately take steps to put in place arrangements that ensure that it identifies, records and investigates all crimes from reports of modern slavery.

Conclusion

Greater Manchester Police’s crime-recording arrangements are inadequate.

http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/publications/greater-manchester-crime-data-integrity-inspection-2016/