Northamptonshire Police investigations 'need improving' - report

The report said investigators sometimes missed important lines of inquiry in the early stages

A new report said the way a police force investigated crime "requires improvement".

The Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy (Peel) report found that Northamptonshire Police had improved in a number of areas, including working with communities.

But it added that offenders were not always brought to justice and 999 calls were answered too slowly.

The force said it was pleased with improvements but had more work to do.

The force was graded "adequate" in six out of nine areas, with others labelled outstanding, good and requiring improvement

The report, by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, measured Northamptonshire Police's performance in a number of areas and gave a grading for each one.

There was no overall grading for the force.

The way the force collected data about crime was rated as "outstanding", and use of police powers and treatment of the public were graded as "good".

Several other areas, including preventing crime and responding to the public, were labelled as "adequate".

The report said not enough 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds

The report said in the year to June 2023, Northamptonshire Police answered 78.5% of its 999 calls within 10 seconds, which was below the national standard of 90%.

The investigation of crime was labelled as "requiring improvement" because some enquiries were not effectively supervised and staff told inspectors that the early stages of some inquiries "frequently have important lines of enquiry missing".

There was praise for the way the force worked with communities and it was "working hard to increase the visibility of its workforce in the community, particularly in priority areas".

It also used stop and search powers "fairly and appropriately".

The acting chief constable, Ivan Balhatchet, said the force was "continuing to move in the right direction"

Acting chief constable Ivan Balhatchet said: "The force is continuing to move in the right direction from our last inspection in 2021 and we are a very long way now from the 2019 inspection report which identified some very serious gaps in performance and led to us spending a period in special measures.

"It is especially encouraging to see how well we have been assessed in terms of our legitimacy, the way we use powers and treat the public with fairness and respect."