HMICFRS report a ‘wake-up call’ for proper funding, says PSNI

In its latest inspection, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found the service needs to improve how it prevents crime and manages offenders and suspects.

However, it acknowledged that the continued financial pressures facing the service, if unresolved, are likely to continue to affect the service it provides.

Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the report should be a “wake-up call to properly fund the PSNI”.

Despite this, the chief constable, his officers and staff are clearly determined to provide “a high-quality service, and to secure the trust and confidence of all communities”, HMICFRS said.

It graded the PSNI’s performance across two areas of policing.

It found the service was ‘adequate’ in preventing and deterring crime, anti-social behaviour and vulnerability, but ‘requires improvement’ in managing offenders and suspects.

HMICFRS said the service uses a range of techniques to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour. For example, neighbourhood policing teams have worked to build trust and confidence with young people to divert them away from paramilitary groups and offending behaviour. The service also works closely with retailers to tackle crime.

However, inspectors said that the service should make sure neighbourhood officers are not diverted from their main duties to cover gaps in response teams. Covering non-neighbourhood duties means officers cannot spend enough time carrying out visible patrols, working with local communities, or doing preventative and problem-solving work.

It is acknowledged that these decisions have been taken by the leadership of the service reluctantly and in response to reduced officer numbers.

The inspectorate also found that the child internet protection team does not have enough personnel so cannot effectively manage its high workloads. As a result of this, it cannot manage the number of referrals it receives from the National Crime Agency.

In addition, inspectors said there was a lack of adequate support for officers who managed violent and sexual offenders or investigated offences involving children. The service did not have psychological screening for officers in the offender investigation unit or the child internet protection team. It needs to provide better support for child abuse investigators, offender managers and their supervisors, the inspectorate said.

HMICFRS said that financial pressures are limiting what the service is able to achieve. Inspectors said that the findings of this inspection highlight that the service’s capacity to provide a high-quality service to the public is under great strain.

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Lee Freeman said: “I have concerns about the performance of the service in keeping people safe, preventing crime and providing victims with an effective service.

“The service’s leaders told us they valued, and recognised the importance of, neighbourhood policing. But in our inspection, we found the current resourcing picture is stark. The service often took neighbourhood officers away from their core roles to cover response and other policing duties.

“The service must improve how it manages the risk posed by violent and sexual offenders. It must also make sure that it shares safeguarding information promptly with health and social care trusts.

“During this inspection, we found a worrying lack of adequate support for officers who managed violent and sexual offenders or investigated offences involving children. It needs to provide child abuse investigators and offender managers with more psychological support.

“However, the continued financial pressures facing the service, if unresolved, are likely to further affect the service it can provide. The chief constable, his officers and staff are clearly determined to provide a high-quality service and to secure the trust and confidence of all communities.

“The financial pressures mean, however, that the service is currently limited in what it is able to achieve.”

Mr Singleton said: “The findings of this report are undoubtedly disappointing but they are not a surprise. They reflect the warnings that the chief constable has been issuing for some time now. Hopefully this report will achieve what thus far our lobbying has failed to do, and will be the wake-up call to properly fund the PSNI.

“Despite significant funding and resourcing challenges our police officers and police staff have been working tirelessly to safeguard victims and provide a reassuring presence in our local communities. We are pleased that HMICFRS have rightly recognised the unwavering professionalism and dedication of the officers and staff of the PSNI. Their efforts have helped ensure Northern Ireland remains one of the safest places to live, work and raise a family in these islands. That should not be forgotten.

“The inspectorate findings are sadly evidence of what we have been repeatedly warning for some time – namely that less police inevitably leads to less policing and a greater risk of threat and harm to the public. This report sets out the very real impact that chronic underfunding is having on our ability to protect the public. At each Policing Board accountability meeting the chief constable has set out the consequences of allowing the PSNI to fall to our lowest numbers, dangerously below the numbers required by the Patten Commission. This underinvestment cannot continue.”

The deputy chief constable added: “In terms of preventing and deterring crime, anti-social behaviour and vulnerability the inspection found many positives particularly around how closely and effectively we work with communities and partner agencies when we have the resources to do so we provide an excellent service. However, we accept the inspectorate’s finding that our performance in this area is at present only adequate principally due to having lost almost 400 officers through cuts.

“The inspectorate rightly recognised that this was attributable to the long term underfunding of policing in Northern Ireland resulting in the lowest numbers of police officers in our history. Our frontline neighbourhood and response teams are at significantly reduced strengths meaning our efforts to prevent crime and protect communities are being frustrated. We should all recognise what those officers remaining in our Neighbourhood Teams do every day to keep people safe.

“The inspectorate’s finding that our approach to managing offenders and suspects requires improvement is sadly also a manifestation of precisely the kind of service impacts we have been warning about. Again in this area the inspectorate are very clear that our Child Internet Protection, Offender Investigation Units and Victim Identification and Image Grading Team require additional resources in order to try and keep pace with demand. We have previously lost 190 detectives through underfunding and last June reset our detective establishment and have 140 unfilled detective posts.

“Immediate steps have been taken to address the identified backlogs in device examination and visits to offenders and significant improvements have been made.

“However, in the medium to longer term our ability to address the gaps in the areas identified by the report will depend on our ability to secure our recovery business case, recently approved by the Justice Minister and now with the Department of Finance.

“This business case sets out a plan to recover police officer numbers to 7,000 with 2,572 police staff. Those numbers are still far below what is ultimately required. We are determined to provide the best service possible with the resources we have and crucially we will address the issues highlighted in the report.

“Throughout the HMICFRS inspection the Inspector of Constabulary states, ‘I continue to be impressed by the professionalism and dedication of officers and staff serving in the PSNI. Their commitment to keeping people safe, preventing crime and providing victims with an effective service, often in the most difficult circumstances, is unwavering’.”

Police Federation of Northern Ireland chair Liam Kelly said: “There is nothing in this assessment that is surprising or new. As our police officers are depleted, over-stretched and doing more with less, it’s inevitable that they and the services they provide to the public are suffering.

“We have led the call for adequate funding and increased officer numbers, but so far it seems our ministers are not reacting positively to funding the irrefutable case that we and the chief constable have made.

“Our officers have commitment in abundance, but unless urgent steps are taken to fix what’s not working well, I foresee more of our talented men and women exiting their career in policing.

“We are dangerously low in numbers and it is unfair to expect our present officer cadre to continue to pick up the slack indefinitely. Burn out is a reality and it will only get worse if there isn’t prompt funding intervention soon.”

Justice Minister Naomi Long said: “Whilst there are many operational challenges for the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) to take forward, the inspection report also underscores the impact of reduced police officer numbers on our communities. It highlights the critical need to address the decline in numbers and warns of future risks if the situation is not addressed.

“Increasing police numbers is a key priority that the chief constable and I share. The chief constable and I are fully committed to recovering workforce levels to 7,000 officers and 2,572 staff within the next three years.”

She added: “By keeping communities safe we enable them to have the confidence they need to live productively and engage fully in society. That is clearly laid out in the new programme for government, and I will continue to advocate strongly for additional resources for the PSNI to enhance public safety.”