Fortnightly update to the Police and Crime Commissioner - 24 May 2024

Dear Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson,

This week has been marked by two significant developments in our onward journey to improve the service we provide to our communities.

On Tuesday, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) confirmed that Wiltshire Police will be removed from the Engage phase of its performance monitoring process. Their news release can be found here.

We were placed into the Engage status in 2022 after HMICFRS graded the Force as ‘inadequate’ in our ability to respond to the public, protect vulnerable people, and demonstrate effective strategic planning. It further described us as ‘requiring improvement’ in a number of other areas.

Over the last 14 months, we’ve made fundamental changes to how we operate, including; 

• The introduction of a new policing model, creating dedicated neighbourhood teams which ensure increased visibility and engagement with our communities
• Significant improvements to the quality of our investigations
• Increased governance around how we monitor our performance and map our demand
• Publication of a three-year strategic plan outlining our key priorities and deliverables.

As a result, we have been able to provide an enhanced service to victims - from shorter 999 and 101 call answer times, safeguarding more people by identifying vulnerability at the earliest opportunity, better quality investigations and an improvement in the number of justice outcomes.

Whilst this news represents a substantial moment in our onward journey towards our aspiration to be an outstanding police force, we will not be complacent.

We still have more to do and we have a detailed plan to ensure nothing distracts us from driving our improvements forward.

I am resolute in delivering the consistently high standard of service that our communities rightly expect and deserve.

These improvements are testament to the commitment of my officers, staff and volunteers to improve Wiltshire Police. In addition, we have had great support from communities and partners, both local and national, who have worked with us, providing peer support and guidance to deliver the comprehensive improvement plan we established.

Commissioner, I would also like to publicly thank you for the support you have shown to my officers, staff, volunteers - and myself - throughout this process. You hold me to account for the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan on behalf of our communities. I hope the improvements that have been recognised will encourage their trust and confidence in the service provided by Wiltshire Police.

As I have said before, I am truly humbled and proud to be the Wiltshire Police Chief Constable and I look forward to sustaining our onward improvement and becoming a police force which provides an outstanding service to our communities.

This week also saw a watershed moment in our wide-reaching review of how we had previously processed applications under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare’s Law).

I commissioned an urgent review of all applications made to us between April 2015 and August 2023 after critical failures in our service were identified back in October last year.

This totalled 3,778 applications (a rise from the initial figure of 3,583 following additional database checks) and I can confirm that we have now concluded this review.

As a result of this review;

• We identified failures in our service in approximately 1% of all applications (33 applications)
• Of these, we know of two failures which may have contributed to people being harmed
• Of the other failures, we believe 14 are administrative failures and 17 are service failures (i.e. where we should have disclosed information and didn’t or where inadequate research was done)
• We’ve made a total of five referrals to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which they are independently investigating
• At its height, we had approximately 45 members of staff moved into the review team supported by a large number of other officers from across the force.

Whilst I hope our communities will take some reassurance from the fact we’ve now reviewed all of these applications, we should never forget that people were put at risk due to our failures.

This was a catastrophic service failure and I am truly sorry to everyone we let down.

There are a small number of people who we’ve been unable to contact or where contacting them directly might not have been safe or appropriate. We will continue to attempt contact where safe to do so and I would urge anyone who needs us to come forward.

It’s important for me to highlight that I have ensured increased scrutiny on the process we use to assess Clare’s Law applications coming into the Force to prevent this from ever happening again.

I know this failure has damaged the trust and confidence our communities have in us, but I would continue to urge anyone considering making an application under Clare’s Law, to please do so.

You can request this information in the usual way through the Wiltshire Police website. However, if anyone feels they are in immediate danger, they should call us on 999. 

This matter will remain a stain on our record of keeping people safe, but I hope it serves as evidence that where we find shortcomings or failures in our service, we will act robustly and transparently.

Both of the milestones we’ve reached this week underpin our joint and enduring commitment to Keeping Wiltshire Safe.

Kindest regards

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police