Thames Valley Police rated inadequate at recording crimes by HMIC

THAMES Valley Police did not investigate a call from a woman who tried to take her own life after being forced into marriage, a critical report has revealed.

The force has been branded ‘inadequate’ for the second time in a damning report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) on Thursday.

The sting comes after TVP was re-inspected earlier this year in a bid to bump up its grade after it was slammed with the lowest score possible in 2018.

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The two-part inspection involves a self-assessment by police and a review by HMIC made up of interviews with staff, audits of crimes reported and reviews of how they are documented by police.

As it is, the force records around 88 per cent of crimes reported to it – but thousands of crimes each year go unrecorded.

St Aldates police station

During the review, inspectors examined 1,419 reports of crime to TVP. Of those, they have found that 379 reports of domestic violence should have been recorded, but only 289 had been.

The missing 90 crimes included 80 serious crimes such as stalking, harassment, common assault, malicious communications and controlling behaviour.

The inspectors noted that there was ‘no clear evidence or explanation' why they had not been logged.

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Inspectors also discovered that call handlers had not logged full details of conversations they had with people, resulting in officers and those investigating not having a full picture.

They revealed in their write-up: "A report was made of domestic abuse, amounting to an offence of controlling and coercive behaviour.

"The victim was a repeat victim of domestic abuse. She was reporting that she was being subject to a forced marriage.

"To facilitate this, relatives were controlling all aspects of her life including travel and access to documents.

"The victim was extremely distressed by this behaviour and had attempted suicide the previous day. Police did not attend. Nor did they record any offences or provide information to suggest a crime did not occur."

The report also said the force was ‘failing to give victims of domestic abuse a satisfactory service’ by ‘under-recording’ crimes.

Out of the 138 reports of rape to TVP, only 126 were recorded accurately. From the 12 which were not logged correctly, seven had not even been recorded at all.

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The report also detailed 25 records of vulnerable children that HMIC examined. It noted that where seven crimes should have been reported, only four were.

In those missing three reports, allegations of sexual activity with a child under 13 and injury caused by a dangerous dog should have been investigated.

The force has taken the report on the chin and published a statement ‘accepting’ the grade.

The elected head of Thames Valley Police, Anthony Stansfeld, admitted more work needed to be done, but also welcomed improvements.

Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfeld. Picture: Lucy Ford

The Police and Crime Commissioner said: "There is clearly more work to be done to improve crime recording in response to the re-inspection of Crime Data Integrity and it is a concern that some of the issues raised at the last inspection are not yet satisfactorily remedied.

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"I am pleased, however, that several improvements have been made since the last inspection showing that Thames Valley Police is moving in the right direction.

"These improvements include crime recording at first point of contact which has significantly improved overall crime recording and changes to address gaps in processes and systems."

The report estimated that from the 2017 inspection, which was published in 2018, the force had recorded an additional 13,800 more crimes.

Mr Stansfeld continued: "I have been reassured that this is taken seriously by the force and that proportionate measures are being taken to deliver further improvements.

"The introduction of the new Contact Management System will address many of the training issues related to crime recording.

"While I am confident that the protection of the public and safeguarding of victims is at the forefront of Thames Valley Police’s actions, it must continue to improve the accuracy of its crime recording to assure the public that they will receive the highest level of service that they expect and deserve.

"I will continue to monitor progress and hold the force to account in addressing these recommendations."