Force praised in report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary

ESSEX Police has been praised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) for its “clear focus” on workforce wellbeing, including its support for LGBT staff and those with mental health issues.

As part of its annual PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) assessment of the force, the police watchdog rated Essex as “good” in respect of the legitimacy with which it keeps people safe and reduces crime.

“The force uses a wide range of methods to communicate with the public, and is good at identifying and addressing areas which might undermine public confidence,” said HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoë Billingham. “It works hard to gather feedback from those who identified as having less trust in the police, in order to learn and improve.”

She said she found positive examples of where the force had communicated with the public and its own workforce about the outcome of misconduct and corruption cases, which helped to improve confidence both inside and outside the force.

“I was encouraged to find a clear focus on wellbeing,” she said. “This is particularly demonstrated by its open and positive approach to supporting staff including LGBT and its emphasis on removing stigma of mental health issues.

“The force could do more to improve the quality of its performance development process. It does however offer excellent support to staff with performance or attendance issues.”

The overall PEEL assessment judges forces on their effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy, giving grades of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. In this report, on legitimacy, the Met was deemed “good”, the same result as last year.

The inspection also assessed, for the first time, how well forces tackle officer abuse of authority for sexual gain. Essex Police and its workforce have “a good understanding” of the problem, it found, and it is treated as serious corruption.