Commissioner of Police

The Bermuda Police, unable to find a suitably qualified Commissioner from within its own ranks, has turned to the UK and appointed an acting Area Commander from a constabulary whose effectiveness at recording reported crime was graded ‘inadequate’ by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services – extract below – full report here.

Steve Corbishley, a Chief Superintendent with Kent Police in England is to take on the Commissioner’s role in Bermuda, recently addressed criticism in the County defending taking 47 minutes to respond to reports of gunfire in Dover.  The constabulary has also defended their policies after a rise in recorded crime and a fall in charges over the past three years with ACC Corbishley apparently stating:

“Regardless of the outcome, Kent Police’s focus is always on the victim’s needs*.”   Whatever happened to prevention being better than cure? Steve is also reported as saying:

“In terms of crime levels increasing, this is not an issue unique to Kent and there has been a genuine increase in reported crime across the country.*” – so that’s ok then, it’s happening elsewhere?

*source – TheKnow

Report 15 June 2017:

Overall judgment – graded inadequate
• Kent Police has failed to maintain the improvements to crime-recording accuracy reported in HMIC’s 2014 Crime Data Integrity inspection report.
• The force has not maintained the standards of crime-recording accuracy reported in our 2014 report.

Over 24,300 reports of crime a year are not recorded

Over 10,600 reports of violent crime a year are not recorded

Over 400 reports of sex offence crime 
a year are not recorded

Cause of concern
In Kent Police officers and staff are not making the correct crime-recording decisions far too often. This is due to deficiencies in the way the force control room (FCR) manages incidents on its STORM incident recording system, insufficient understanding of crime-recording requirements within the IMU and PPU, and limited audit and supervision to correct the decisions of officers and staff and improve standards from the outset. This means that the force is failing many victims of crime.

The force is failing to ensure it adequately records all reports of rape, other sexual offences and violence, including domestic abuse crimes and crimes reported directly to its public protection units. In addition, on many occasions, it is incorrectly using classification N100.

Conclusion
Kent Police’s crime-recording arrangements are unacceptable.

The force has been unable to maintain the compliance levels reported in our 2014 report. This is as a result of the failure of systems that are designed to support effective crime-recording, poor supervision of crime-recording decisions and a lack of effective audit.