Watchdog finds Kent police to have solved 'unnacceptably' low crime levels

The Police watchdog is telling the service to improve their investigative ability and to better their response to the public.

Transcript

00:00 our streets preventing crime. But Kent Police has been told to make changes in

00:05 two areas by the watchdog. According to His Majesty's Inspectorate in the year

00:09 leading to this March 33.4% of calls to 101 were abandoned considerably above

00:15 the 5% standard. We respond to something like two and a half thousand calls for

00:20 service every day and therefore through investment in our frontline operations

00:27 through their training we've been able to reduce those considerably and we

00:31 regularly find ourselves now well below the national average that's a good thing

00:36 and answering calls more quickly with far fewer that go unanswered. And for

00:41 those who do get through to the force the number of victim-based crimes

00:45 attended a charge has also dropped. The force has invested in victim-based crime

00:50 teams to help improve that relationship and investigate more crimes. They've

00:55 spent money on things like my community voice where they are now engaged in

00:58 two-way relationships with the local community and we're also looking at what

01:02 technology we can use to improve it make it even better going forwards. The

01:06 force's latest report is generally better than before with six areas ranked

01:11 good but how did a public rank them? Recent experience with them has been

01:18 very good. Of our people out there, we don't get the help. I really respect what they do

01:24 because the criminals are getting more and more. I don't think most people have

01:30 got much trust in them if I'm honest. Yeah because recently I've just been a

01:34 victim of fraud and they're actually helping me deal with the fraudulent

01:37 claims that's been someone's been using on bank card. But we've been speaking to

01:40 more recent victims some from car theft. It's one of the biggest issues for

01:46 policing. Ruby's car was stolen at the start of this week. She doesn't think for

01:51 communication from Kent Police has been that great. She's now in her courtesy car.

01:56 It's annoying when you're told if you can go find out if there's CCTV or

02:01 ring doorbell footage and when you can sort of feel like oh that is your

02:07 sort of detective work and I get that sometimes to them that's not going to be

02:10 the most important thing. They've got bigger things to deal with then vehicle

02:14 thefts, there's bigger crime and stuff like that but when you're in that

02:17 position you just wish sometimes that they would do a little bit more. Kent

02:21 Police say if new information becomes available they'll carry out further

02:25 inquiries. In the past few years trust in policing has come into focus and the

02:30 areas of weakness highlighted today add to the force's pressure. But Kent Police

02:34 say they have record numbers of officers to make positive changes. Gabriel Morris

02:39 for KENTV