Merseyside police rated high in performance league

Oct 10 2007 by Alan Weston, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYSIDE Police received a generally positive rating in the latest national performance tables issued by the Home Office.

However, while it scored “good” or “fair” in most categories, the figures revealed that user satisfaction had deteriorated since last year.

The force – whose budget for the year 2006-7 was £296.4m – succeeded in reducing incidents of robbery by 8.5%, reducing cash-in-transit robberies from almost four a day to as few as one a month, and exceeding targets for cash seizures and cash forfeitures.

It also achieved reductions of over 20% for both violent offences and life-threatening and gun crime, and was recognised as the best performing force in the country for using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, with 18,500 unlicensed vehicles seized since January 2006.

However, user satisfaction had deteriorated in the areas of action taken, progress updates, treatment by staff, overall service, and fairness of stop and search towards minority ethnic groups.

The report looks at perform-ance for last year and does not take account of the force’s most recent performance data.

Police said they had made progress in the areas highlighted in the report, with the introduc-tion of specialist Hate Crime Investigation Units in each of the force’s policing areas.

Southport Lib-Dem MP John Pugh said: “There appears to be a gulf between what some of the statistics tell us, and what the public in general appear to feel.

“While houses are less likely to be broken into, people on the streets of Merseyside do not feel as safe as they should. With Capital of Culture coming up, that is a crucial imperative now.”

Merseyside Police said it had drawn up action plans to improve its performance in the area of user satisfaction.

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson said: “Mersey-side Police is continuing to improve, bringing down crime and delivering a service which responds to victims. We are not complacent and will continue to work with the public so that the people of Merseyside receive the service they deserve.”

Cllr Bill Weightman, chairman of Merseyside Police Authority, said: “We are always keen to hear from members of the public how they think the force is performing and we hold consultation events throughout the year to listen to the public’s views.”

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty warned that forces are facing financially “tight” times as the Government prepares to publish its long-awaited Compre-hensive Spending Review.

He said: “We are now entering a more flat-line period in terms of resources after seven or eight years of growth.”

Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan said most forces made significant improve-ments after last year’s inspection.

But he added: “It is not going to be a perfect picture across the board and no-one here is trying to pretend that is the case.”

Sir Ronnie said police forces have improved the way they protect vulnerable people but he said there must be no let-up in efforts to identify, manage and reduce risk to the public.

alanweston