Essex Police praised in HMIC police legitimacy reports

ESSEX Police is “good” at keeping people safe and reducing crime, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Policing.

According to the HMIC, Essex Police “has clear values that emphasise the importance of treating people with fairness and respect and these values are reflected in the force’s policies.”

The HMIC adds: “The workforce receives extensive training on unconscious bias, effective communication skills and the use of coercive powers.

“The force is good at scrutinising its activities and independent advisory groups provide effective external scrutiny. Most officers understand how to use stop and search powers fairly and respectfully, but the force should ensure that all officers and supervisors understand what constitutes reasonable grounds for stop and search and record them correctly.

“The force ensures its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. Leaders understand the importance of an ethical approach and act as good role models. Officers and staff receive continuing training and advice on ethical decision-making. The force’s website provides clear information to the public on how to make a complaint, judgments are outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

“Essex Police encourages feedback from the workforce and highlights what action it is taking in response to concerns raised. It is addressing disproportionality in its workforce by increasing officer recruitment from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. The force has a well-established wellbeing programme that includes preventative measures that cover mental wellbeing. Leaders have a good understanding of their wellbeing responsibilities.

“The force has improved how it manages individual performance assessment. It has schemes to develop talent and bring skills into the force.

“The force’s promotion process is based on competence and is viewed by the workforce as fair.”

See the full report here https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-legitimacy-2017-essex.pdf