INSPECTORS have said that there are “several areas that are of serious concern” with policing in Gloucestershire.

Published today, Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary (HMIC) 2016 PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) assessment highlights concerns about the county’s police force’s approach to crime prevention and anti-social behaviour as well as its investigative standards and protection of vulnerable people.

PEEL reports are published annually although individual sections are updated throughout the year.

Of the three assessed areas, Gloucestershire Constabulary was praised for its efficiency but was told that its effectiveness and legitimacy required improvement.

Addressing the report’s findings, Wendy Williams, Her Majesty’s inspector of constabulary said that while some areas had improved since last year, progress has been slow in others and “some aspects of the force’s position have declined”.

She said: “While I am satisfied with parts of Gloucestershire Constabulary’s overall performance, there are several areas that are of serious concern to me.

“I am deeply concerned that the force does not have essential tools in place to help it understand the threat from serious and organised crime.

“Nor does it to provide an effective response to this type of offending. This is particularly troubling as I set out many of the shortcomings in detail last year. The force has done little to address these areas.

“While neighbourhood teams communicate well with local people using a range of methods, their ability to build relationships and solve problems is affected because the force regularly reassigns them to cover other duties, taking them away from their routine preventative work.

“The force has made some progress in the way it protects those who are vulnerable from harm, but its understanding of the nature and scale of vulnerability is hindered by its limited analytical capacity.”

Improvement in looking for signs of suspicious behaviour and its approach to managing the risk of officers or staff abusing their authority for sexual gain was also identified as being necessary.

Modernisation work by Gloucestershire Constabulary was praised together with its work to address cybercrime.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “We are pleased that the inspectors acknowledged how successful we’ve been with mapping our demand and putting our resources in the right places.

“We place a lot of importance on the service we give to the people of Gloucestershire and that starts with ensuring our officers and staff understand the values and the behaviours expected of them, something which HMIC says we are also particularly good at.

“HMIC has said in 2017/2018 it wants to see how the force is progressing in our approach to tackling serious and organised crime.

“We will happily share with them some of our recent successes, including Operation Emperor, which has so far seen 43 people convicted for dealing drugs in our county, serving a total of 100 years in prison.

“HMIC has also asked to see how we are developing neighbourhood policing and improving the standard of crime investigations and we very much look forward to sharing our progress with the inspectors and the public over coming months.”

The full report can be viewed at justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/peel-assessments/peel-2016/gloucestershire