Significant improvements made to professional standards processes following HMICFRS inspection

Significant improvements have been made to strengthen Wiltshire Police’s approach to professional standards.

Today (29^th October), His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published its integrity inspection report into the Force covering vetting decisions, misconduct investigations and how we assess counter-corruption intelligence.

Whilst the inspection, which took place in January this year, outlined several areas of good practice, it concluded the Force requires improvement in each area.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Cooper said: “Firstly, we welcome the transparency and rigour of the HMICFRS inspection process – now, more than ever, it is right that this area of our business is independently scrutinised.

“The report did acknowledge important strengths within this command, including;

• That we have developed and maintained relationships with partners who support vulnerable people – meaning we are more likely to gather corruption intelligence relating to potential sexual abuse and safeguarding vulnerable people
• That we reinforce standards of professional behaviour using a variety of methods.

“However, it also outlined a number of areas we need to grip – these included improving our quality assurance processes to review vetting decisions, speed up the time it takes to investigate and finalise complaints and conduct cases and improve how we collect and assess counter-corruption intelligence.

“It is important to note that the inspection was carried out at the start of this year and a number of things have changed, been introduced or developed since.

These include:

• We accepted and have progressed all of the recommendations made to us by HMICFRS earlier this year
• We’ve changed the leadership cadre in this command – we now have a substantive Detective Superintendent overseeing our Professional Standards Department. Additionally, in February, I was appointed as the substantive Deputy Chief Constable responsible for misconduct
• We’ve seen an increase in misconduct outcomes – both in terms of the number of Gross Misconduct hearings and the number of officers and staff dismissed as a result. Between October 2024 – September 2025, we held 26 Gross Misconduct Hearings (an increase from 17 the year previously) which resulted in 15 officers being dismissed (an increase from four the year previously) and nine police staff members being dismissed (up from four the year previously)
• We’ve further developed our relationships with key stakeholders to improve our service. This has included us establishing a new partnership with Dorset Police aimed at improving the service we provide to victims of domestic abuse where the alleged perpetrator is a serving or former police officer or staff member. Through this collaboration we are sharing specialist investigative expertise, introducing consistent processes across both forces, and providing enhanced support for victims from the very start of the investigation. This means that, no matter which of our counties a victim lives in, they will receive the same high standard of service and safeguarding.

“I hope these improvements outline to our communities that we are totally committed to ensuring their local policing service operates with the highest level of integrity, care and professionalism.

“We will continue to ensure we embed improved practices and governance to enhance this further.”

Following the BBC Panorama programme, which aired earlier this month, Chief Constable Catherine Roper published an open letter to our communities outlining our approach to misconduct. You can read the full letter here.

You can read the full HMICFRS Integrity report into Wiltshire Police here.