Annual Report 2022 - 2023 - Page 2

I am extremely proud that Lancashire Constabulary has supported local and national policing operations including London Bridge following the death of her Majesty the Queen, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the return of the Conservative Party Conference to Blackpool.

Officer numbers have continued to increase and representation during recruitment this year has been amongst the highest in the country, with 50 per cent of the new entrants female and over 10 per cent BAME. The success of the campaign has resulted in the Home Office highlighting Lancashire’s approach to recruitment during the Police Uplift Programme as best practice.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, Police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (HMICFRS PEEL) Inspection was undertaken in 2022. To ensure that the Constabulary delivered the required standards across all areas, an intense programme of development activity was put in place. Under pressure staff and officers within the Force delivered to tight timescales, and made 6. significant improvements resulting in one of the best PEEL reports in the country.

The whole organisation continues to be dedicated and committed to victim focussed solutions and outcomes. We continue to deliver against our joint ambition to lead the fight against crime and protect the safety of our communities. This has included a 20% reduction in ASB, a 4% reduction in residential burglaries, an 18% reduction in Personal Robbery. Following the introduction of the dedicated Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) Teams, 96% of all rapes are now allocated to specialist RASSO or Child Protection team, an increase of over 40%. We have seen an increase in Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVA) referrals ensuring victims get the right support from our partner agencies and victim contact records are completed in a timely and effective manner, ensuring victims are kept up to date. The teams have provided a significant improvement in the time taken to submit a file to Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and have halved the time it was taking prior to the dedicated teams.

To tackle established criminality, we have Launched Operation Warrior, a force-wide approach to tackling Serious and Organised Criminality. This sees designated lead officers responsible for driving tasking internally, and a media campaign to raise awareness linked to Crimestoppers for the public to report relevant intelligence. Intelligence based tasking ensures that criminal behaviour is targeted consistently and in a coordinated way to reduce harm in our communities and ensure offenders are brought to justice. Whilst there is a clear focus on serious criminality, in the last twelve months Lancashire has been one of a small number of forces nationally who have seen a reduction in all crime reported. Year to date this equates to 1,800 less victims of crime.

To ensure that officers and staff can focus on these key priority areas, I committed to reducing demand on our services. Lancashire Constabulary adopted Right Care Right Person (RCRP) which is now seen as national best practice and is being supported by the College of Policing who are overseeing its roll out across England and Wales. The benefits of RCRP are wide ranging both for the Constabulary and service users. A question set allows the call taker to identify callers who would be better served by contacting partner agencies direct. This process removes the unnecessary deployment of officers, creating additional capacity so that officers can spend more time improving the quality of their interactions with victims, and enhancing investigation standards. It is estimated 4278 hours of officer time has already been released by signposting service users to lead agencies and not deploying police officers unnecessarily. The Constabulary is also seeing a reduction in calls for service as partners and the public become more comfortable with calling the appropriate lead agency in the first instance instead of defaulting to call the Police.

Finally, I want to highlight the excellent ongoing work by staff to the communities of Lancashire. They can be proud that this has resulted in the Crime Survey for England and Wales showing a confidence rating in Lancashire Constabulary of 71%, I am very pleased that this is above the National Average of 69%. We will continue to strive to develop the confidence of our communities, and this will remain a priority.

Chris Rowley

Chief Constable