Police boss hits back

Adam Hewitt • Published 18 Mar 2010 11:00 0 Comments

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ROB Wilson has accused senior police officers of "complacency" over a damning report into the force's ability to solve crime.

The Reading East MP spoke out after the publication of the Report Card into Thames Valley Police's (TVP) performance, which rated it average in 16 areas, excellent in one, but poor in two - including crime-solving.

Mr Wilson said: "I'm concerned that the reaction from TVP at a senior level has looked very complacent indeed and I think they need to treat this report extremely seriously. It highlights serious deficiencies."

He said he had a briefing from Chief Constable Sara Thornton on the issue, and she responded yesterday (Wednesday) by insisting that she took the report "very seriously".

She added: "The Police Report Card contains performance data for the period up to September 2009. It is important to acknowledge the good results in that period, particularly the significant reduction in important types of crime such as burglaries. However, we also recognise the need to improve in other areas and we were disappointed with the poor grade for solving crime, most notably for violent crime. Far from being complacent we had already started to address this before the end of 2009 and have a plan in place to continue to reduce violence and to improve our detection rate."

As reported in the Reading Midweek, the report was put together by Zoe Billingham from Her Majesty's Inspectorary of Constabulary, who praised TVP's overall record in reducing crimes but said robbery and burglary remain above average compared to similar areas and warned that tighter budgets mean it faces tough choices.

A value-for-money inspection is published today (Thursday) at www.mypolice.org.uk

The Thames Valley Police Report Card (each criteria is measured in a different way, some out of 3, some out of 4)

Neighbourhood policing - meeting standard (2/3)

Neighbourhood presence - fair (2/4)

Reducing crime - fair (2/4)

Solving crimes - poor (1/4)

Investigating major crimes - meeting standard (2/3)

Reducing road death and injury - excellent (4/4)

Solving serious sex offences - fair (2/4)

Suppressing gun crime - fair (2/4)

Suppressing knife crime - fair (2/4)

Comparative satisfaction of black and minority ethnic people - poor (1/3)