Team to tackle failing police force

A team of experts has been sent in to help turn around Nottinghamshire Police
12 April 2012

A team of experts has been sent in to help turn around an underperforming police force.

The hand-picked group is working with Nottinghamshire Police after policing watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) decided it had "not seen a convincing plan" for the force's improvement.

Among the areas said to have been targeted are answering 999 calls, arranging regular public meetings and responding to messages left for neighbourhood teams.

An HMIC spokesman said: "We're concerned about the enduring issue of Nottinghamshire Police's under-performance. We have not seen a convincing plan for improvement.

"HMIC have secured a strong team to objectively review the root cause of their problems - whether they lie with the force, the police authority or the way they work in partnership. We expect that to be concluded by the end of February."

Under-performance at Nottinghamshire, which has been headed by chief constable Julia Hodson since 2008, has been a long-running issue.

County MP John Mann, who represents Bassetlaw, called on the Government last month to intervene and sort out the "organisational malaise" at the force.

According to The Times, the turnaround team is made up of five people drawn from an external police force, local government, a person from an outside police authority and the private sector.

A spokesman for the Home Office, which can intervene itself in particularly badly performing forces, said: "We are supporting HMIC as they work with Nottinghamshire Police to ensure the force's performance improves."

Last month the interim chief executive of the force's police authority quit after just two months in the job. David Wilcock criticised a "lack of capability" among key staff as well as a poor staffing structure.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in