How Humberside Police went from special measures to ‘force of the year’

When you’re dialling 999 in an emergency, nothing is more important than police giving you the help you need.

Humberside Police’s performance was so worrying at one time that it was placed in special measures for several years. Abandoned 101 calls, high sickness rates and a shortage of patrols plagued the force.

But today, northern Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire’s force is being hailed as a shining example to others. It received national recognition as the overall winner in the recent Public Sector Transformation Awards.

The path from ‘inadequate’ to outstanding hasn’t been easy. Putting hundreds more officers on the beat, making policing local and changing the way they look at mental health have all played a role.

The darkest moment for Humberside Police came in 2015 when Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary rated the force’s efficiency as Inadequate. It was put into special measures shortly after.

The report highlighted ‘severe flaws’ in the command hub, noting many 101 callers faced long waits or simply gave up. Staff shortages meant the force wasn’t always possible to double-crew patrols, while staff protecting vulnerable people had excessive workloads.

Officer numbers were the lowest in its history by 2016 – just 1,420, compared with over 2,000 six years before. The number of PCSOs had also fallen by a quarter.

Austerity meant that central government – where police forces get 70 per cent of their budget from – which was cutting budgets for most public bodies. Officers can’t be made redundant, but forces sometimes had no option to replace those who resigned or retired.

A fall in the quality of service was inevitable, Humberside Police’s website says. “It’s quite obvious that with such a reduction in staff numbers, Humberside Police could not deliver the level of service and protection it used to.”

Morale was also a serious issue at the time. Nearly 85 per cent of staff said they had low personal morale, according to a survey by the Police Federation.

Chief Constable Lee Freeman was appointed in 2017. Together with Police and Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter, the Grimsby-born policeman was determined to reverse the fall in numbers which was damaging performance and causing stress for remaining officers.

Today, more than 650 new officers have been hired. The force is one of the leading performers for call handling and getting positive outcome rates for victims.

One of the decisions that Mr Freeman says has paid off was keeping officers closely connected to their communities. “Getting back to local policing” was the key change, he told Radio Humberside after the award.

“Policing has to have a relationship with its local communities. If you dial 999 in Beverley, those are Beverley officers who respond to you. The same for Pocklington, Scunthorpe, Grimsby … People who work in your community day in and day out, and have a relationship where you should know them and they should know you,” he told David Burns.

There was also the recognition that although officers may respond to incidents, they’re not always the help that is needed. This led to a focus on mental health in a programme called Right Care, Right Person.

The Chief Constable said: “Members of our community who are experiencing mental health crisis need the same level of clinical support afforded to those who suffer physical injuries. What ‘Right Care, Right Person’ has done is put the individual right at the heart of our decision making and this means that a police officer is often not the right person to be providing this care.

“By working with partners and supporting them financially to remove barriers, we’ve are now supporting those individuals in a much more appropriate way.”

In the midst of the transformation, police were tasked with enforcing social distancing rules during the Covid pandemic. While some forces were criticised for being overzealous, police in Humberside said they’d always try to engage before hitting people with fines.

The force’s turnaround has been so noticeable that one former North East Lincolnshire councillor has suggested Mr Freeman as a replacement for the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. The Grimsby-born policeman has insisted he’s focused on completing they journey of his local force.

Mr Freeman said: “This award is a recognition of five years of continued effort from across the entire team at Humberside Police.

“We should all feel proud for what we have achieved to date, it has been a complete cultural change at every level, and I’d like to thank the staff for their continued support, without which, the transformation we’ve seen would not have been possible.”

Source: (Hull Daily Mail)