APCC response to HMICFRS Police Effectiveness 2017 report
Responding to the HMICFRS ‘PEEL: Police Effectiveness 2017’ report, APCC lead for Performance Matthew Scott said:
“This is another positive report for policing, which highlights that the majority of police forces are performing effectively.
“However in some areas, despite forces’ best efforts, HMICFRS noted worrying backlogs of emergency calls and officers being unable to attend incidents quick enough. These are some important challenges that police forces need to respond to. Many forces are looking to use money raised by PCCs through council tax to recruit more officers and call-handlers to deal with these issues and, where appropriate, PCCs and residents will want to know how else Chief Constables will continue to deliver improvements.
“Mental health represents between 20% and 40% of police time, depending where you are in the country. This limits forces’ capacity to deal with crime and antisocial behaviour. PCCs are grateful for the efforts of Ministers to engage with us on this issue and invest in solutions, but it is clear that more needs to be done to hold health and social care providers to account for the pressure that their decisions are placing on policing.”