Durham Constabulary’s Durham Police Station
Durham Constabulary has been graded as the top performing police force in the country at tackling crime, showing just why Durham is among the safest university cities in the country.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s (HMIC) first Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales, known as the PEEL Report, assessed each force in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. The evidence from inspections, together with the context within which forces operate, allowed HMIC to make an assessment of each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Durham Constabulary is responsible for the area of County Durham, with a resident population of around 600,000. In the effectiveness strand of the assessment, Durham was the only force in the country judged to be ‘outstanding’ at investigating offending. The force was also rated ‘outstanding’ at tackling anti-social behaviour and ‘good’ at reducing crime and preventing offending.
The report said: “Durham Constabulary is effective at preventing and investigating crime. The constabulary provides appropriate support to victims, delivers positive outcomes for victims and engages effectively with its communities. Its victim-centred approach makes extensive use of outcomes other than prosecution to deliver what the victim wants. The use of restorative justice and community resolution is both widespread and innovative.”
The report also praised the leadership team, led by Chief Constable Mike Barton, saying: “The Chief Constable and his senior team lead by example, demonstrating visible leadership.”
In response to the grading, Chief Constable Mike Barton said: “I am immensely proud that we lead the way when it comes to investigating crime. I am not complacent and we will continue to raise the bar, but this is a fantastic launch pad for future excellence.”
Ron Hogg, Durham’s Police and Crime Commissioner congratulated the Constabulary on the “outstanding results” and welcomes the report which “is helping to increase transparency in policing and should increase public confidence.” He also pointed out that the report identified areas for improvement that “all police forces need to face up to” and that he “will be holding our force to account to ensure that these are acted upon, including the need to ensure they have the capability they need to respond to threats such as cyber-crime.”
To keep up to date with the excellent work that Durham Constabulary is doing in our community, they can be found on Facebook as Durham Constabulary, on Twitter as DurhamPolice and on YouTube as durhampolice999.