Dyfed-Powys Police commissioner defends force over 'service failure'

A police and crime commissioner has defended his force after a report found it had again failed to record thousands of crimes.

Inspectors issued a "cause for concern" notice after finding Dyfed-Powys Police had documented just 87.6% of reported crime.

The force had previously been told to improve two-and-a-half years ago.

But Dafydd Llywelyn said he had been "reassured" that victims were being safeguarded despite the findings.

Inspectors estimate 4,400 crimes are not recorded, including around 2,400 violent crimes and domestic abuse. Similar findings were identified in 2018.

Mr Llywelyn, who was re-elected as Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the force on Sunday, said he had been told by senior officers within the force that improvements had been made in that time.

"What's disappointing is that hasn't been borne out by the HMIC report," he said.

He claimed the inspectorate sampled about 600 incidents from a three-month period.

"From those there were between 60 and 70 crimes not recorded, that's unfortunate, and all crimes should be recorded, I fully accept that," Mr Llywelyn said.

"What we're talking about is the lack of recording of 'crimes within crimes' - where there is a multi-faceted crime incident, where numerous allegations are made."

He said of the 20 incidents involving domestic abuse, 15 had at least one crime recorded and victims were fully risk-assessed and safeguarded.

"I'm still concerned about the five that haven't been risk-assessed because that's my job as the commissioner, to be the victims' champion."

Charlie Armstrong, of HMIC, said the full inspection report for Dyfed-Powys Police is due to be issued in the autumn, but they took the decision to issue a "cause for concern" now.

"We think there is a significant service failure in terms of the way the force is recording crime," she said.

"However, we wouldn't want to say that without acknowledging the force has taken steps to improve many areas of it's performance around crime recording.

"We are confident that the chief constable and her team already understand some of those gaps and are working to address those."

She added: "When it has recorded the crime, it conducts effective investigations in the majority of cases."

BBC Wales asked to speak with the acting Chief Constable, Claire Parmenter, but the request was declined.

In a statement on behalf of the chief constable, the force said: "We accept the concerns and recommendations published by HMICFRS in respect of crime data integrity.

"As an organisation, we are firmly committed to supporting victims and putting them at the heart of everything we do. The force has plans in place to improve its crime recording and I am determined we will get this right.

"Since the date of this inspection, we are already seeing improvements as a result of the swift additional action we have taken, achieving 100% crime recording compliance in respect of anti-social behaviour for February and March 2021 which is positive."