Dear Mr Peachey,

Thanks for your response although I am not reassured. The ultimate aim seems to be to “report on police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy”. Whatever way you look at it, if a force is failing badly on all 3 counts but is being reported as “good”, there is a serious problem.

It may be the IOPC that records and reports complaints but how could a report on a force not make reference to them? For example, that when the general trend is downwards, complaints to Dorset have increased in both of the last 2 years.

Yes I agree that counter-corruption is important but when I provide you with examples of it at the highest level in the force you just ignore it, and although I am grateful and hopeful that you will pass my points to those involved I am not confident that they will be taken seriously. If you read what I sent you , you will see that the PCC, CC and ACC are releasing fake news about casualty reduction while they use methods shown to be completely ineffective at reducing casualty to provide funding for a charity they have a personal interest in, in complete breach of the rules about course money confirmed by his own chief exec.

Thanks also for forwarding the articles which seem to contradict the findings of the report in terms of crime reduction and improving public safety. Yes they are news articles in the press but the first one for example simply refers to ONS data:

“Nationally, crimes being reported to police rose by 8.4 per cent, the paper revealed.

Latest figures show reported violent crime is on the rise in Dorset, with a 22 per cent increase in reports to police of violence against the person – compared with the twelve months up until September 2017.”

I’m sorry, Wendy Williams has got it wrong: “I am pleased with Dorset Police’s performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime.”

A 22% increase of reports of violent crime does not indicate improving safety and reducing crime.

The HMICFRS report on Dorset Police is therefore misrepresenting the reality. Poor management of Dorset Police is the main factor and reporting it good when it is not will protect poor performance and fully justifies complaint.

If it is not your intention to correct these false conclusions in your report, please could you let me know if there is an appeals / escalation process for complaints against the HMICFRS.

Regards, Ian Belchamber

From: Contact HMICFRS <ContactHMICFRS@hmicfrs.gov.uk>
Sent: 24 October 2019 10:03
To: ian@belchamber.net
Subject: RE: Complaint: Dorset PEEL report

Thank-you for contacting HMICFRS.

Please find attached a response to your email.

Regards
Contact HMICFRS

From: ian@belchamber.net <ian@belchamber.net>
Sent: 29 September 2019 11:39
To: Contact HMICFRS <ContactHMICFRS@hmicfrs.gov.uk>
Subject: For the attention of the Chief Operating Officer: Complaint, Wendy Williams, Dorset PEEL report

Dear Chief Operating Officer,

I wish to make a formal complaint about recent assessment of Dorset Police by Wendy Williams . This is a force not only performing badly, it is misrepresenting failure as success. There is plenty of bad news out there about Dorset Police. I believe the HMIC may have been selective about what it has based its findings on, or may have put too much trust in what it has been told by Dorset Police. In any case it is giving a far more positive outlook on Dorset than is deserved. One glaring omission from the report is the matter of complaints, quantity, and how well the force deals with them.

Unfortunately I am having to register this complaint in something of a hurry as “Complaints should be set out in writing to the Chief Operating Officer within ten working days of the incident”. Here is how I found out about this report:

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17933088.dorset-police-chiefs-delighted-force-rated-good-areas/

Let’s just look at the headline: “DORSET’S police force has been praised for keeping people safe and reducing crime across the county following an inspection.” Even if this is not what the report actually said, it is easy to see how such positive headlines will come from a positive report.

On “keeping people safe”: I have a complaint in progress about Dorset Police lying about reducing road casualty by 30% when there has been no reduction. You need to see this. Please do not ignore it because it is a complaint and the HMIC does not deal with complaints. It is evidence:

http://www.dorsetspeed.org.uk/2019/complaint.aspx

Now have a look at what happens if you make a complaint against Dorset Police / PCC, shocking, again, although entitled appeal it is also evidence:

http://www.dorsetspeed.org.uk/2019/iopcdorset/iopcdorset.aspx

And on “reducing crime across the county” this simply is not reality. Here is what the public are actually seeing:

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/17386181.recorded-crime-in-dorset-on-the-rise/

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/17859462.violent-crime-soars-dorset---reports-sex-offences-quarter/

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17832145.increase-drug-crimes-warning-county-lines-dealing/

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17926869.dorset-pcc-martyn-underhill-slams-funding-cuts-crime-detection-level-drops/

https://www.wessexfm.com/news/dorset-news/2807091/knife-crime-in-dorset-has-increased-by-40-in-four-years/

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/16993747.crime-goes-up-in-dorset/

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/15425580.violence-robbery-and-sex-offences-all-on-the-increase/

Notice how for years they have been using the excuse of “improved recording and confidence in the police” as the reason for increasing recorded crime.

There is plenty more, I feel the HMIC when it produces reports about the Police should be completely impartial and therefore make some attempt to find the bad news as well as any good news. Dorset Police seriously needs to improve, and inaccurate positive reports will be one more barrier to this actually happening.

Regards, Ian Belchamber