Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has today published an assessment on the accuracy of crime recording in Lancashire Constabulary, which found that the constabulary records around 84 percent of crimes reported to it.



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Lancashire Constabulary: Crime Data Integrity inspection 2017

HMICFRS previously inspected the accuracy of crime recording in Lancashire Constabulary in 2014.

To assess the extent that recorded crime information in Lancashire Constabulary can be trusted, HMICFRS asked:

How effective is the constabulary at recording reported crime?
How efficiently do the systems and processes in the constabulary support accurate crime recording?
How well does the constabulary demonstrate the leadership and culture necessary to meet the national standards for crime recording?
Based on these criteria, overall HMICFRS has judged Lancashire Constabulary as ‘inadequate’.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Michael Cunningham said:

“Our inspection found that Lancashire Constabulary must make many improvements to how it records reported crime. We found a number of the crime-recording practices to be unacceptable, in particular how it under-records some serious offences.

“We found that Lancashire Constabulary fails to record over 20,000 reported crimes each year. Some of these failings are a consequence of the constabulary not sustaining changes made following the completion of the recommendations for improvement made in our 2014 report. This is undermining the effectiveness and efficiency of its crime-recording arrangements.

“I’m disappointed to find that the constabulary is currently under-recording crimes where the victim is sometimes vulnerable including some victims of domestic abuse. Immediately, the constabulary must identify and address gaps in its systems and processes for identifying and recording all reports of crime.

“We have made a number of recommendations – some of which are to be acted upon immediately – to help the constabulary achieve greater accuracy in recording crimes to keep people safe. I will continue to monitor how the constabulary progresses against these