Devon and Cornwall Police has been "formally discharged" from concerns over "management of violent and sexual offenders"

Devon and Cornwall Police formally discharged from HMICFRS concerns regarding the management of violent and sexual offenders. 

Devon and Cornwall Police has today been notified by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) that it has been formally discharged from concerns regarding the management of violent and sexual offenders (MOSOVO) in communities across Devon and Cornwall.

The force was moved in to the Engage phase of monitoring which provides additional scrutiny on behalf of the public by HMICFRS in October 2022.

HMICFRS has recognised the clear and sustainable improvements the Force has made in MOSOVO including investment in the Force’s Public Protection Teams resulting in a significant reduction in the number of offenders managed by each officer and overdue visits.

The Force has also invested in an uplift in staff and increased the number of supervisors to ensure workloads are managed in line with national guidance. Neighbourhood policing teams are also now attending visits which has helped to reduce caseloads and the risk assessment of offenders significantly.

When the Force was placed in to the "Engage phase by HMICFRS", the Inspectorate identified three key areas where the Force needed to make clear and sustained improvements. These were MOSOVO; the Force’s ability to answer emergency and non-emergency calls and how crime is recorded.

Acting Chief Constable Jim Colwell said: “I am extremely proud of the hard work and resilience of my officers and staff across the organisation who accepted HMICFRS’s findings and have worked relentlessly over the last 18 months to resolve the management of violent and sexual offenders in our communities.

“Although we remain in the Engage phase for the other two areas identified and recognise there is still work to do, improvements continue at pace. We have and will continue to have an open and honest dialogue with HMICFRS accepting their findings in respect of the key areas identified and focussing our efforts on a structured and measured response that seeks to deliver sustained improvements for our communities.”

Improvements continue to be made in how crime is recorded by the Force and the management of emergency and non-emergency calls. The Force’s overall crime recording compliance stood at 87.8% in September 2023, an uplift of 7.5% since 2022 with the recording of violent crime showing an 11.6% improvement.

Data from October suggest further improvements with early results indicating overall compliance at 91.2%. To help improve crime recording, the Force has delivered file quality training for staff and officers and will continue to roll out further system improvements and training this year.

The Force has made a significant improvement in answering emergency and non-emergency calls. 96.2% of 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds in December 2023. This is an improvement of 13.7% compared to December 2022 and well above the national target of 90%. In December 2023, 999 calls to the Force took an average of 3 seconds to be answered compared to 19 seconds in December 2022.

In the last six months the number of 101 calls abandoned has decreased from 65.2% in June 2023 to 24.8% in December 2023 with this reduction covering the Force’s peak summer and Christmas/New Year periods.