Performance and Measurement

Summary

Hampshire Constabulary covers the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and is the second largest non-metropolitan police service in England and Wales. It also hosts a number of annual events and festivals.

The HMIC inspection of major and serious and organised crime recognised the significant investment and improvements in these areas. In major crime, the Force was assessed as ‘Meets the Standard’.

Compared with peers, Hampshire Constabulary has low numbers of house burglaries for the second year running; high levels of detecting house burglaries; and low numbers of vehicle crimes. The Force is working hard to improve performance on keeping people informed. However, the British Crime Survey (September 2007) showed the force as one of the highest for the number of people who think their local police are doing a good job. In terms of the force’s performance in reducing the number of victims of crime, there were around 16,000 fewer recorded crimes in 2007/08 compared to 2006/07.

A local indicator agreed between the force and Police Authority for 2007/08 was to lower the repeat incidents of domestic related crime. This will continue to be monitored as a local target in addition to national indicators for domestic violence. For 2008/09, the force and Police Authority agreed local priorities to reduce the incidence of anti-social use of motor vehicles, reduce anti-social behaviour and reduce criminal damage.

Following the 2007 HMIC inspection of neighbourhood policing, performance management and protecting vulnerable people, certain areas for improvement were identified and the force has taken appropriate action to address these, in particular, the inclusion of improved community intelligence, implementation of online surveys allowing the public to influence strategic and neighbourhood priorities and actions to improve Force response to missing persons.

In addition to overall crime reduction performance, the force has made significant progress in tackling more serious and organised crime. During 2007/08, it carried out operations against 30 of the most significant crime groups across the two counties, leading to the disruption and dismantling of organised crime networks involved in such offences as drug supply, kidnaps, money laundering and identity theft.

A significant force programme for the next 3 years is a multi million pound programme to move its Winchester HQ to a new site in Chandlers Ford. This will offer new opportunities to relocate and bring together existing HQ staff and other central functions and will help to improve the effectiveness of business processes. The relocation programme is complex and will need careful consultation and management of expectations of all those affected including staff, local people and partners.

The key future challenge for the force is to maintain and improve its performance in a tight financial climate. To deliver real resource and efficiency improvements with significantly increased budgetary pressures will undoubtedly affect future strategic planning and service delivery decisions. During the coming months, the new chief officer team, working with the Police Authority, will be keen to ensure that those challenges are met.