Improvements needed in the south west’s regional response to serious and organised crime

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said there were “inconsistences” among the performance of the five regional forces that make up the unit.

The SWROCU was graded as ‘adequate’ overall, but it was found that four of the individual forces – Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Devon and Cornwall Police, Dorset Police and Wiltshire Police – ‘require’ improvement, while Gloucestershire Constabulary was graded as ‘inadequate’.

Assistant Chief Constable Rich Ocone, lead for Crime, Justice and Vulnerability at Gloucestershire Constabulary, said they were “disappointed” with the findings of the inspection but had “been working hard over the past year to improve areas the inspectors highlighted as needing improvement”.

Across the region, the inspectorate said that the unit appoints senior officers to lead on the region’s priorities to tackle serious organised crime. It reviews what works well in these operations and shares this learning with its teams and regional forces.

“However, inspectors found that across the region, learning from operational activity was inconsistent. The unit needs to improve the governance of regional resources and support assigned to forces.

HMICFRS also said that the unit and its regional forces were not assessing their serious and organised crime threats consistently. Some forces in the region did not have enough personnel to fully assess the intelligence. Examples were found of forces undertaking investigations involving organised crime groups, even though the groups had not been formally threat assessed.

The inspectorate discovered that the unit had found it difficult to recruit personnel. While the vacancy rate had reduced in the 12 months prior to the inspection, HMICFRS said that to address resource problems, the unit had recruited staff with little experience of investigating serious and organised crime. Inspectors heard that personnel in regional forces have difficulty accessing individual IT systems, making it harder for them to do their jobs.

Inspectors said that the unit and police forces in the region need to work together to successfully improve their response to tackle serious and organised crime.

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Andy Cooke said: “The SWROCU regularly reviews what worked well in its serious and organised crime operations. It was positive to see it effectively manages support requests from forces and other agencies, and appoints senior officers to lead on regional priorities.

“But the unit and its regional forces need to improve how they assess threats and how they work together to tackle serious and organised crime.

“We found inconsistences among the performance of the regional forces. It was troubling to hear about the recruitment issues faced by forces, meaning personnel are not always as experienced as they should be. And IT across forces isn’t well connected, making it harder for personnel to do their jobs.

“We will be working closely with the unit and monitoring its progress against our recommendations.”

South West Regional Assistant Chief Constable Andy Hill, said: “We welcome the constructive assessment of our work to tackle serious and organised crime and, since the inspection last July, have improved our processes to ensure our resources are focused where they’re needed most.

“We have brilliant officers and staff working tirelessly across our SWROCU teams and the region to combat the evolving threats of serious and organised crime – from online child sexual abuse and exploitation to complex fraud and money laundering.

“Tackling such crime types effectively requires a united approach. As highlighted in the report, we’re committed to further strengthening our collaboration with regional forces and partners to prevent crime, protect victims, and bring offenders to justice.”

Gloucestershire Constabulary’s assistant chief constable said he does not believe the report “represents how we’re tackling serious and organised crime today”.

Mr Ocone said: “The constabulary has been working hard over the past year to improve areas the inspectors highlighted as needing improvement immediately following the inspection.

“We’re committed to providing our communities with the best policing services and have continued to take on board the suggestions made to us, refreshing our improvement plan when HMICFRS sent us its draft report three months ago.”

He added: “This report focuses on the effects of a change in operating model in 2023 and investigations that started not long after its inception and a lot has changed in the past 12 months.

“We’ve also seen changes in senior leadership positions and the launch of the Gloucestershire Rapid Improvement Plan (GRIP) – a plan which sets out how we intend to improve our performance over the next 12 months. The GRIP specifically outlines how we will continue to tackle SOC and demonstrates our recognition of the fact it must be treated as a priority.

“One of the key issues raised in the report is whether we have sufficiently trained, skilled and experienced investigators to deal with serious and organised crime threats.

“Earlier this year, we moved 20 investigators into specialist crime investigation roles primarily to enhance our ability to investigate child protection cases well but they also provide us with greater resilience in tackling serious and organised crime threats.

“We’re also in the process of finalising plans to move more officers into specialist crime roles in the next few months.”

HMICFRS recognised the constabulary has a dedicated serious and organised crime unit and that it had secured additional funding prior to the inspectorate’s visit to increase the number of financial investigators, a key resource in effectively tackling serious and organised crime threats.

It also found the force provide training and support for its lead responsible officers – officers responsible for leading disruption and enforcement interventions against organised crime groups (OCGs) – and that their workload was manageable.

In addition, it recognised innovative work with a local college to develop a five-year analytical apprenticeship scheme – which had at the time of inspection led to the recruitment of five additional intelligence analysts.

Mr Ocone said: “HMICFRS said we work well with partners to prevent serious and organised and protect victims at a local level.

“Its report signals out examples of local policing teams working with partner agencies to tackle serious and organised crime – specifically praising Response teams for carrying out hot spot patrols; PCSOs delivering talks to children in schools; drones being used to track drug dealers using electric scooters and that officers across the force had a good knowledge of the process to safeguard vulnerable people using multi-agency arrangements.

“This is the second time in as many months that HMICFRS has recognised our partnership working and we’re proud of the relationships we have with other agencies in the county.

“One example of the success of our work with partners was in Cheltenham last summer. We cleared OCGs out of The Moors and St Paul’s areas of the town, prevented other OCGs moving in, and then worked with local councils, schools, NHS, housing agencies, the fire service and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to start building a better future for those communities. Operation Endeavour was part of the nationally recognised ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ approach.

“Of course, there is always room for improvement but we are confident we have the necessary leadership in place and that throughout the organisation there’s a solid grasp of the risks associated with serious and organised crime and how to address them.”

Avon and Somerset Constabulary said since the inspection last summer, it has put in place and acted on an improvement plan including:

• Boosting specialist staff numbers;
• Improving initial and on-the-job training and putting support networks in place;
• Developing a new strategic assessment;
• Updating intelligence profiles at local authority level;
• Putting panels in place at local authority level to ensure it is working with partners to disrupt and divert people from crime; and
• Finding innovative ways to introduce specialist skills by recruiting volunteers with private sector experience to support complex financial investigations.

“While finding that Avon and Somerset Police ‘require improvement’, the report recognises our use of preventative legislation through the courts, such as anti-slavery and trafficking risk orders and serious crime prevention orders,” the force said.

Chief Superintendent Jane Wigmore, head of crime, said: “We are committed to protecting our communities from the effects of organised crime, especially keeping vulnerable people safe from exploitation.

“We’ve already invested in personnel, IT, training and support but recognise there is more to be done.

“We continue to build on our positive working relationships with colleagues in the other four local forces and the SWROCU.”