GLOUCESTERSHIRE Constabulary will recruit hundreds of new police officers and staff in a bid to reverse the failings identified in the force’s latest inspection, writes Carmelo Garcia.

The constabulary was criticised last week for failing to record crime effectively and its inadequate service to victims of crime.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services raised concerns about the overall performance of the constabulary despite improvements in some areas.

The inspectorate graded the force’s performance across 10 areas of policing and found the force was inadequate in five of these. This included how the constabulary protects vulnerable people, and how it investigates crime.

It said the force is not able to respond effectively to calls to the control room or when it deploys officers to incidents.

And opportunities to prosecute are being missed because investigations are poor, or because officers have not collected evidence or persevered in enough cases where the victim no longer wishes to pursue a prosecution, the report said.

Chief constable Rod Hansen said the force is carrying out a recruitment drive to help address the issues.

A total of 103 new police staff will be split between the control room and crime standards bureau.

He hopes this will improve call response times and crime recording.

“We have moved resources away from certain operational activities,” he said.

“This often requires people. We’ve surged them in.

“What we’ve learned is that police officers are not necessarily the best resource for it.

“But if you don’t have any additional police staff, we have little or no choice.”

He said it was not an ideal situation but the number of people working in the force’s crime standards bureau has increased from 20 to 40.

Mr Hansen said it is a crisis and they are treating it as a critical incident.

“The resources that are coming are welcome,” he said.

“The 103 additional police staff will be broadly split between half of them going into the force control room so that we can answer calls in a timely way.

“The other half will be going into a crime standards bureau.

“We just need to make sure the right people with the right training and the right understanding are in those roles.

“We are recruiting them as we speak.”

He told today’s (November 3) police and crime panel the extra 300 police officers which they aim to recruit will bolster areas where the force is vulnerable.

“There is a national shortage of detectives, there is a national shortage of firearms officers and somehow we’ve got to cover those bases.”

He said they will use the shortcomings identified in the report to improve and get better.