Crine Counting Rules
Dear Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services,
Dorset Police failed to record or investigate crimes. The way in which the force did so would evade your attention so, may one communicate directly with you in order to detail the forces failures?
Yours faithfully,
B.domenic
Dear B Domenic
Thank you for contacting Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and
Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) regarding your concerns.
HMICFRS inspect and report on the efficiency and effectiveness of police
forces and fire & rescue services. We have no remit to investigate
individual public complaints about a force/fire & rescue service or its
personnel. Responsibility for dealing with such matters rests with the
Professional Standards Department within the force and the [1]Independent
Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) / [2]Local Government and Social Care
Ombudsman (LGO).
I am afraid we are unable to assist you any further in this matter.
Yours sincerely
HMICFRS Contact Team
Dear HMICFRS FOI,
A Dorset Police officer explained that if the reported crime falls outside counting rules then its not counted. If nothing else it suggests the force's crime counting may be a little discretionary. Its understood a forces desire to maintain low crime stats may lead to failure of strict adherence to the rules. Its reasonable to expect such failures, although not tolerable. But what about information detailing correlation of such failures. That's to say, identify regularity where the failures occur. Seems to me Dorset Police fail to adhere to rules where it involves crimes reported by members of the ethnic minority community.
My FOI to you is this: do you have a capacity to receive information from the public concerning the same; a feedback policy of sorts?
Yours sincerely,
Newquery
Dear Newquery
Thank you for your email.
[1]Information on our role in handling complaints about forces can be
found on our website.
I hope this information proves useful.
Yours sincerely
HMICFRS Contact Team
Dear HMICFRS FOI,
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your message. Apologize for this late communication.
Having perused the site, it's clear crimes are both allocatable and recordable: but prejudice dictates otherwise.
In demonstrable cases, where an officer fails to adhere to the reporting process for racist motive, is their provision for complaint?
This is an FOI query - it requires but reference to established procedure or policy - I seek neither guidance nor advice.
Yours sincerely,
Newquery
Dear Newquery
Thank you for contacting His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and
Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
HMICFRS is an independent inspectorate defined under statute and is
responsible for inspecting the efficiency and effectiveness with which
forces provide policing services. The inspectorate has no mandate to deal
with individual complaints about a force or its personnel. If you have a
complaint about the police, then responsibility for the matter remains
with that force.
HMICFRS checks how well crime is recorded as a percentage of the thousands
of crime reported to a police force in a three month period. On average
we check each force every four years. How we do this is explained on our
website; the following link may be helpful [1]Crime-recording process -
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
(justiceinspectorates.gov.uk) .
Forces are expected to record crimes as directed by National Crime
Recording Standard (NCRS) and the [2]Home Office Counting Rules for
Recorded Crime (HOCR). Together they provide a clear and simple framework
and set of rules for the sound and consistent recording of crime by the
police. They give forces detailed instructions on when crimes should be
recorded. Each force appoints a force crime registrar (FCR) who oversees
compliance and ensures forces record crime when reported by victims or
someone reasonably acting on their behalf.
HMICFRS’s Crime Data Integrity (CDI) audits are concerned with how the
HOCR and NCRS are applied. They are audits of the integrity of
police-recorded crime data, not an inspection or inquiry into the
integrity of the police. The latest CDI audit of Dorset, published in July
2020, can be found here [3]Dorset Police Crime Data Integrity inspection
2020 - His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue
Services (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)
HMICFRS cannot comment on specific examples of crime-recording but the
person to contact with queries over a crime-recording decision would
always be the FCR for the force. Contact details for forces are published
on their websites and a general query directed to the FCR should reach the
correct person who should be able to help you.
I hope this information proves useful.
Yours sincerely
HMICFRS Contact Team
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RP Hodges left an annotation ()
The wording of this FOI request is likely to lead to a refusal based on an invalid request. The Authority has responded on how to make contact with a specific police force, however the Author may require data from HMICFRS in relation to a specific issue of Crime Counting rules.
It is unclear as to the specific data being requested. The Author may benefit from re-wording and specifying what information the Authority holds regarding issues identified on inspection.
However, the Author should be aware that Crime Recording/Counting rules is specified by the Home Office and not the HMICFRS.