Cumbria Constabulary have been congratulated after receiving an overall "good" performance rating but there are "areas in need of improvement".  

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), a watchdog which assesses police forces across the UK, inspected the Cumbria's police operations within nine categories.

The police force were awarded an 'Outstanding' when it came to managing offenders; three 'Good', including investigating crime; and four 'Adequate' judgements, including preventing crime, anti-social behaviour and the treatment of the public.

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The report highlighted that there is need for significant improvement when it comes to dealing with non-emergency calls from the public as well as their neighbourhood policing resourcing. 

The force was also complimented on their strong focus on early intervention with children and young people. 

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, said: "I congratulate Cumbria Constabulary on its performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime, although it needs to improve in some areas to provide a consistently good service.

"The force’s work in the management of registered sex offenders is excellent, which means it is protecting communities from some of the highest-harm offenders – I am impressed by some of the innovative practice.

"Cumbria Constabulary does need to improve its call handling performance. Emergency calls are answered and responded to quickly; however, sometimes abandonment rates for non-emergency calls aren’t meeting national standards," he said. 

Chief Constable, Michelle Skeer, said: "We welcome HMICFRS’s recent findings recognising the constabulary as ‘Outstanding’ in the management of sex offenders and high-level violent offenders and as ‘Good’ in the areas of investigating crime and our work to keep vulnerable members of the communities safe.

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"We are incredibly proud to have received recognition for the hard work and dedication of our staff and officers in numerous policing areas, which was achieved despite having to quickly adapt to the evolving challenges that policing COVID has presented.

"The findings recognised that Cumbria Constabulary remains one of the top-performing forces in the country for areas including domestic abuse arrests, charge-summons rates and ‘action taken’ outcome rates.

"The force’s work to prevent and reduce crime, including partnership working and the innovative work officers are facilitating in communities, were also positively recognised.

"However, we are never complacent, we want to provide an outstanding service across the board for Cumbria.

"Improvements to response times for answering non-emergency calls were identified as needing improvement. A call-back system and a live webchat facility have both since been launched, with positive results already being achieved.

"These facilities are in addition to reporting online via our website or calling 101," she said. 

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