HMICS publish crime audit 2014

12 November 2014

The quality of most crime recording in Scotland is good but there is scope for its improvement in relation to some sexual offences and non-crime related incidents, an HMICS report published today reveals.

The Crime Audit 2014 is the largest into crime recording undertaken by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland and shows that the reform of Scottish policing has provided new opportunities for greater consistency.

HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, Derek Penman, said: "It is important that the public can have confidence in crime figures and the scale of this report, which examined five times more records than any previous report, provides that.

"Police Scotland’s own auditing of crime recording is good and the fact it broadly mirrors our results should provide assurance as to its accuracy.

"Accurate crime data is also vital for Police Scotland as it can inform planning and allows resources to be allocated where they are most needed.

"It is the first time we have presented figures on a divisional level and this will assist local scrutiny bodies to work with their local commanders improving the quality of crime recording for their communities. On a national level, we feel this audit gives the Scottish Police Authority an opportunity to drive improvement in crime recording in line with their wider scrutiny role.

"Most incident and crime recording decisions by Police Scotland are good. Some police divisions performed very well and show what can be achieved when a

rigorous and victim based approach is taken to attending, investigation and recording crime.

"A few divisions fell below the standard we would expect and Police Scotland should ensure these divisions develop improvement plans to address their crime recording practice."

The report found there has been good work in relation to recording of hate crime, rape and house-breaking. It identified that one of the areas for progress is in other sexual offences and that their referral to special investigation units, although improving the quality of the inquiry, can be a factor in the delay of their recording. Violent crime and non-crime related incidents could also be better recorded.

The timeliness of crime recording, in general, has improved since the last HMICS audit with the majority taking place within 72 hours of the police being told about the incident.

Eight recommendations for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority and 15 improvement actions are contained within the report.

Police Scotland have been asked to develop improvement plans for four divisions; to set in place processes to ensure incidents referred to specialist investigation units are regularly updated; to ensure that all incidents are properly closed and that complainers in no-crime cases are kept updated.

The recommendations also encourage closer scrutiny of crime data through the SPA, local authorities and Police Scotland working together on the improvement plans and sharing internal crime recording data.

HMICS also wants there to be discussion between the Police, SPA and the Scottish Government about the relevance of the current crime groupings and clarification on the ownership of the Counting Rules which detail how crimes should be recorded.

Footnotes

1. Records in six categories were audited – sexual offences, violent crime, housebreaking, hate crime, non-crime related incidents and no crimes.

2. No crimes are incidents that were originally thought to have been a crime but were later re-classified, following further additional investigation as not being a crime.

3. An incident is correctly closed when it is classified as non-crime related and the log contains enough information to dispel any inference of criminality or the incident indicated a crime had been committed and a crime record had been traced.

4. This is the first audit in which a timeliness test has been applied. All crimes must be recorded as soon as reasonably practicable and within 72 hours of from first notification.

5. The audit, which aimed to assess the extent to which recording complies with the Scottish Crime Recording Standard and the Scottish Government’s Counting Rules, examined over 8000 incidents and over 4500 crimes.

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