11 March 2010
Kent Police has achieved a ‘good’ performance following an assessment by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
The Police Authority – the watchdog that monitors Kent Police – is pleased with the report card results that saw the Force continue to perform as an all rounder with all ‘fair’ and ‘good’ scores with one exemption.
The performance information, which grades different areas of the Force’s work, will be made available online to members of the public through Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary website Mypolice.org.uk. The assessment focused on statistics for the period of October 2008 to September 2009.
An unofficial league table would place Kent Police amongst one of the best forces nationally.
The report card also recognises successes such as the Police Pledge – providing a quality service to the public – as well as neighbourhood policing. However, it does make a number of recommendations for where improvements can be made.
Commenting on the report card findings Ann Barnes, Chair of the Kent Police Authority said: ‘We welcome the new Police Report Card by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. I’m delighted that Kent is one of the top performing Forces and the findings are very similar to our own analysis. Once again Kent is shown to be a solid performing Force across the board. I’m also pleased that police council taxpayers will be able to find out information about their local police force online.
‘However, although Kent’s assessment is good the Authority is aware there is still more to do to get even better. We have been concerned for quite some time that despite low levels of anti-social behaviour here in Kent the public think these levels are high. The Force has not scored well on this category, and there seems to be a knock on effect with relatively low levels of public confidence as a result. We also need to do more to ensure that victims of crime are kept better informed. The Authority has already set the Force target to visit all victims of crime, and repeat and vulnerable victims of anti-social behaviour during 2010/11 and we believe this will make a difference. The Authority will be working closely with the Chief Constable to make sure he and his staff are taking the necessary steps to address any issues raised within the report card.’