Staffordshire Police 999 response rated inadequate again
Staffordshire Police’s system for calling back members of the public who report crimes and incidents is failing to meet demand “in an adequate, timely or fair way,” inspectors have found, as the force’s overall response to the public was rated inadequate for the second inspection in a row.
The PEEL 2025–27 report, published by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) today, found the force’s callback arrangements often delay contact “by several hours” and sometimes fail to reach the caller at all, leaving some victims and witnesses without a response, and without the force properly recording or understanding the risk attached to their call.
Inspectors also found that incidents initially graded as priority, requiring police attendance within two hours, were frequently downgraded later without adequate risk assessment or supervisory sign-off. In many of the cases reviewed, HM Inspector Kathryn Stone’s team found the circumstances described by the caller had not changed since the initial grading; the decision to delay attendance appeared to assume risk diminished simply with the passage of time.
The force met its two-hour priority response target less than 60 per cent of the time, and answered 88.2 per cent of 999 calls within 10 seconds — below the 90% national standard, though the report notes a third of all 43 forces in England and Wales fall short of that benchmark too. Almost one in five calls to the non-emergency 101 line were abandoned in the year to March 2026.
The findings echo concerns HMICFRS raised about Staffordshire’s response to the public in its last inspection, published in September 2024. “It is particularly concerning,” Stone said, “that despite our 2024 inspection highlighting that the force needed to improve how it responds to the public, we found that performance in this area was inadequate. The force needs to urgently improve its response when the public call for help.”
The force has recently introduced Operation Freshwater, aimed at improving emergency response times, along with a dedicated control room role for callbacks and tighter scrutiny of grading decisions. Inspectors described these steps as “reassuring” but said it was too soon to judge whether they represent sustainable change.
Staffordshire was rated adequate in five of the nine PEEL categories, requires improvement in three, including investigating crime, where victims are not consistently receiving their rights under the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, and inadequate in one: responding to the public.
Acting Chief Constable Becky Riggs said: “We welcome this report and accept its findings. While it is encouraging that HMICFRS has recognised improvements we have made in safeguarding, prevention and problem-solving, we know we must improve the service we provide when members of the public contact us and ensure victims receive the service they deserve.
“We know that answering calls quickly and attending incidents promptly is fundamental to public confidence, and we are already taking action to improve in these areas.”
“We have already introduced several changes to improve performance, including increased oversight in our control room, improvements to call handling processes and work to better align resources with demand. Our focus is on ensuring the public receives a consistent, high-quality service. To support this, we have invested in an additional 53 police officers and 15 members of police staff in our contact and control functions.
“The report also highlights areas where we need to strengthen governance and oversight and improve our understanding of current and future demand. We accept those findings and have already begun work to address them through enhanced performance monitoring, workforce planning and operational review programmes.
“We acknowledge the report’s observations regarding leadership stability and governance. While a number of senior leadership positions continue to be filled on a temporary basis, we remain focused on providing clear direction, strong oversight and effective accountability as we drive improvements across the organisation.”
Staffordshire police, fire and rescue commissioner Ben Adams said: “In recent months I have seen evidence that the contact centre are answering 999 and 101 calls more promptly and that the force are getting to incidents more quickly. It is therefore disappointing that HMICFRS have deemed the force’s response to the public as inadequate although I recognise that the inspectors are looking for sustained improvement and pace in addressing concerns that have featured in their previous reports.
“A key part of my role is holding the Chief Constable to account. With this in mind I have invited the Acting Chief Constable to an extraordinary police public performance meeting to consider the PEEL findings, the challenges faced by the force and the action they are taking to implement the report’s recommendations.
“Members of the public deserve a high-quality service, and I will continue to maintain pressure to ensure the force is working at pace to make the necessary improvements.”