A new report has praised Surrey Police for the quality and management of its crime data.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) visited the force last year to review data practices as part of a national audit.

And the organisation revealed its findings in a report published last week.

The document stated that the HMIC looked as 120 incident records created by Surrey Police as a result of calls for assistance from the public.

It said that just four had been wrongly closed without a crime being properly recorded.

“This sampling provides an initial indication that Surrey Police almost always records crimes accurately as required by the NCRS [National Crime Recording Standard],” said the report.

“HMIC found that the force has good incident and crime recording systems.

“Staff are well-trained which ensures that incidents and crimes were captures correctly and to a good standard.”

The report also said that Surrey Police has a victim-focused approach to crime recording and investigation, with the individual needs of the victim a key consideration.

“The force agrees with individual victims on how often they will contact and update them,” it said.

“Staff have access to and a good understanding of the force guidance for investigations.

“The force is improving its response to initial investigations and their supervision.

“This should ensure staff take all of the appropriate action for each recorded crime – for example, carrying out house-to-house enquiries to identify witnesses.”

In addition, the report said that Surrey Police, from the top team and across the whole organisation, was “clearly committed” to ensuring that crime recording is accurate and of the highest quality.

The monitoring of data quality is good at a force level and is supported by local quality
assurance procedures, it added.

“Quality assurance findings were used to improve staff training – however, the force needs to ensure that all remedial action identified through the quality assurance process is implemented,” said the report.

The document concluded: “HMIC’s sampling indicates that Surrey Police almost always records crimes accurately as required by the NCRS.

“Chief officers demonstrate strong leadership and reinforce the importance of accurate crime and incident recording throughout the organisation.

“Staff understand their responsibilities around ensuring that crimes and incidents are recorded accurately.

“There are also sound quality assurance arrangements in place, which means that if any issues do arise they are identified.”

Surrey Police’s Temporary Deputy Chief Constable, Jerry Kirkby, welcomed the HMIC’s findings.

“The force has to manage a huge amount of information and getting the process right is crucial,” he said.

“The quality of data has an impact on how crimes are investigated, where resources are channelled and victim satisfaction.

“To know that we have good processes in place and that staff are managing information well and making the right decisions is a real positive.

“A lot of hard work goes on at every level to keep data management standards high and we continue to streamline our methods to maintain good performance.”