The Constabulary has delivered strong performance improvement across a number of key areas since 2005/06, which include:-
• Perceptions that the police are doing a good job rising from 53% to 67%
• Overall detection rates rising from 23% to 35%
• Recorded crime falling by 26%
• Domestic burglaries falling by 32%
• Satisfaction rates amongst victims of crime increasing from 80% to 87%
• Satisfaction rates amongst victims of ASB increasing from 62% to 81%
The Constabulary is currently meeting five of the nine ambition areas for 2012/13, with strong performance in the areas of
• Overall detections - increased from 34% to 36% in the last year to 13th best performing force nationally. This has been supported by improvements in the Constabulary’s Crime Management Model and suspect management processes.
• Serious acquisitive crime continues to fall, although reductions have been less marked over recent months. This has been supported by a co-ordinated district focus on serious acquisitive crime and improved crime management processes.
• Overall victim satisfaction for ASB reaching 81.5% satisfied. This has been supported by the Constabulary’s ‘Gold’ response to dealing with reports of anti-social behaviour.
• Serious violence against the person (SVAP) detections have increased to a top 10 national position (5/43), but remain susceptible to month on month fluctuation on account of the low volume of offences.
• Serious sexual offence detection rates remain strong at 36.9% - the tenth highest rate nationally. This has been supported by the dedicated work of the Bridge Sexual Assault Referral Centre.
Performance is currently below the Policing Plan ambition in the following areas:-
• Serious acquisitive crime detection rates have been falling steadily from 15.2% to 12.4% over the last year. This has resulted in the Constabulary’s national ranking slipping to 30/43. Work continues to improve TICs in this area, particularly with regard to domestic burglary and theft from vehicle detections in Bristol, which remain key to improvement.
• Total recorded crime rates remain higher than average and the performance aspiration at 31/43, despite ongoing reductions in reported crimes locally and nationally. This is partly due to differences in the recording of some low level offences which is being addressed via a dedicated Crime recording Gold Group.
• Serious violence against the person rates remain marginally short of the top 10 aspiration at 14th. These offences remain susceptible to month on month fluctuation, however, on account of the low volume of offences (340 per year).
• Overall victim satisfaction rates for crime have fallen to a national position of 12/43 against a top 10 performance aspiration. A Task and Finish Group was established to drive further improvements in this area which resulted in IT enhancements that enable swifter identification and contact with victims and a renewed focus on compliance with the Victim’s Code.