Chief Constable welcomes HMI Andy Cooke’s first annual assessment of policing in England and Wales

 

Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman welcomes HMI Andy Cooke’s first annual assessment of policing in England and Wales.

The report looks at all aspects of policing. In places, it is a difficult read for policing, and a number of challenges facing the service are outlined.

What is positive is that North Wales Police compare favourably to the national picture in several areas.

Chief Constable Blakeman said: “It was really pleasing this year to see that we are judged as being good at preventing crime, responding to the public and developing a positive workplace, but we acknowledge that we also have work to do in other important areas, such as investigating crime.”

Since becoming Chief Constable in 2022 Amanda has introduced three priority areas – fighting, preventing and reducing crime; being visible to and engaging with local communities; and providing an excellent service to the public.

“It is good to see that our force priorities align with the areas the HMI identifies as priorities for policing and the communities we serve in his report. My aim is to ensure we increase and maintain the Public’s trust and confidence that we are doing a good job for them locally. I want us to be a force which provides an excellent service, is visible and accessible and which is in a good position as we face future challenges.

“We have recently been highlighted as a positive outlier amongst forces nationally, for seeing a significant reduction in theft and vehicle crime. Residential burglary has also reduced over the course of the year.  We are examining how we can mirror success in these areas to improve performance across other types of crime reported to us.

“We were successful in meeting the Uplift recruitment target and we are carefully planning how best to utilise our new officers as they progress. Frontline policing is our main focus and we are currently reviewing the way we work to ensure we fully support our new recruits in helping us to achieve our priorities.

“We are also looking at the Right Person Right Care initiative, as followed in other forces and as mentioned in the report, to ensure we support those in need of emergency assistance. This will however need to be balanced with the responsibilities of other partner agencies who are better placed to deal with non-urgent care.

The report quite rightly emphasises the need for police to focus in on what matters most to the public.

In a survey carried out in March this year 90% of women have confidence in North Wales Police.  59% of those surveyed thought their local officers do a good or excellent job, with the figure being 65% for women. In the same survey 89% believed local officers would treat them with respect and 74% believe that they would treat people fairly, these figures are significantly above the national average, but it is our clear ambition to further improve the confidence the public have in us.

In addition, a survey of domestic abuse victims during the 12 months to March this year showed that 87.3% would feel confident in contacting the police again and 96% felt they were treated with respect.

In a user satisfaction survey between May 2022 and April this year 90% felt fairly treated and 83% were satisfied that their issue was taken seriously. With regards to hate related incidents 88% considered their matter had been taken seriously.

Chief Constable Blakeman said: “I am extremely proud to lead a force which has so many dedicated officers and staff who each day go above and beyond to provide the people of North Wales with a great service. But we are not complacent, we know we have room for improvement and I am determined that we will succeed in making these improvements to ensure that our communities receive an excellent quality of service.”