> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Suffolk police rated 'good' on just one of nine measures by watchdog - URL: https://www.ipswich.co.uk/suffolk-police-rated-good-on-just-one-of-nine-measures-by-watchdog/ - Published: 2026-08-20T08:40:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T08:40:30.000Z - Description: Suffolk's police and crime commissioner called the latest inspection "a good report". His Majesty's Inspectorate rated the force good on just one of nine measures, and inadequate on two, including how it protects vulnerable people from harm. - Author: Oliver Rouane-Williams - Tags: Long Reads, Policing, Suffolk Constabulary ## What the inspection found His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published its PEEL 2025–27 assessment of Suffolk Constabulary, grading the force across nine areas of policing. Under the inspectorate's newer, continual assessment approach, forces are judged against a five-point scale running from outstanding to inadequate. Suffolk Constabulary was rated good in a single category: preventing and deterring crime and antisocial behaviour. Three categories were rated adequate: developing a diverse and inclusive workforce, responding to the public, and investigating crime. Three more require improvement: leadership and force management, police powers and public treatment, and managing fraud. Two were rated inadequate: safeguarding children and adults, and providing a safe custody environment. In a press release issued alongside the report, Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore described the findings as "a good report", adding: "It is important to remember Suffolk is one of the lowest funded forces in the country and despite that we are one of the safest, with the second lowest level of recorded crime." Chief Constable Mark Webster said the report "reflects the hard work and commitment of our officers, staff and volunteers". HM Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher, who signed the report, struck a slightly different tone. "The constabulary has made improvements in how it responds to the public and how it secures positive investigation outcomes for victims," he wrote. "But I have concerns about how the constabulary is keeping victims of domestic abuse safe, its strategic understanding and tolerance of risk, custody handovers and leadership behaviours." ## Safeguarding rated inadequate The most serious findings concern how the constabulary protects vulnerable people. Inspectors issued an accelerated cause of concern in May 2026 over the force's handling of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, often known as Clare's Law, after finding a backlog of more than 500 outstanding applications that the constabulary was not aware posed a risk. Support our journalism ****Suffolk's police watchdog found just one "good" rating out of nine. The PCC called it "a good report."** Inspectors flagged a backlog of over 500 unassessed Clare's Law applications and a custody handover process still putting detainees at risk. We're holding the constabulary to the inspectorate's findings — not its press release. Help us continue doing it by becoming a member for just £6 per month. [Become a member today ](#/portal/signup) The report states that the backlog had been logged on the constabulary's own risk register but classed as "tolerated", meaning it was "allowed to continue with insufficient scrutiny or mitigation, compounding the risk to victims". Inspectors also found that, in the year ending 31 January 2026, the constabulary recorded 616 cases of domestic abuse as high risk. Of these, 238 were later downgraded to medium risk and 20 to standard risk, a downgrade rate of 41.9 percent. The report notes the constabulary "hasn't scrutinised this data to understand if these downgrades are appropriate", and that some downgraded cases were passed to investigators without the accreditation to handle high-risk domestic abuse cases. HMICFRS gave the constabulary three months to introduce systems to assess and record risk of harm to victims, develop the governance and data needed to manage safeguarding referrals, ensure it has the capacity to support the process, and make sure its systems support the use of police-held information and intelligence to inform how investigations are allocated. Chief Constable Webster addressed the wider safeguarding concerns in the press release, saying: "We acted quickly to address the concerns identified around Clare's Law and safeguarding. Significant improvements have already been made and we are seeing stronger performance as a result. We look forward to demonstrating that progress when inspectors return." ## Custody environment also inadequate The constabulary was also rated inadequate for providing a safe and lawful custody environment, with inspectors issuing a cause of concern over the handover process between shifts. National guidance states that custody officers should carry out handovers in person. Inspectors found the constabulary's written handover process was "insufficient and increased the risk to detainees and personnel", and that a video-recorded handover introduced in response "still doesn't allow for in-person clarification and risk discussion to support detainee welfare and safety". The report says inspectors raised the concern with senior leaders during the inspection itself, and that "the immediate risk hasn't been sufficiently mitigated and still remains". The report also raises concerns about culture within custody suites. Personnel told inspectors that "the lack of strong leadership had led to some poor behaviours and cultures being allowed to persist", with arresting officers who were younger or female reporting poor experiences, and senior leaders unaware of the behaviour at the time of the inspection. Elsewhere, the report found the constabulary's custody suites were clean and well maintained, and that detainees were generally treated with dignity and respect, with strong healthcare provision overseen by an independent doctor. ## Where the force is required to improve Three further areas were rated as requiring improvement. On leadership and force management, inspectors found governance arrangements did not always provide "sufficient scrutiny or challenge" of under-performance, and that the constabulary had not resolved a previously identified gap in its review process for domestic abuse cases. The report also references a workforce survey in which officer and staff networks raised concerns about unequal treatment of female colleagues, including being given "mundane duties", with one case only considered resolved because the individual involved retired. On police powers and public treatment, the report finds the constabulary under-recorded its use of force, estimating it should have logged 10,693 incidents in the year to 31 March 2025 against the 4,784 actually recorded. People from a Black ethnic minority background were 5.0 times more likely than White people to be stopped and searched, and 4.9 times more likely than White people to have force used against them. Inspectors found this disproportionality had increased compared with the previous year. Stop and search itself was found to be used well, with 100 percent of a sample of records showing reasonable grounds, a statistically significant improvement on the previous inspection. On managing fraud, inspectors found only 21.9 percent of staff who identified fraud response as part of their role had received training, and that call handlers did not always give correct advice to victims. ## The stronger areas Inspectors rated the constabulary good at preventing and deterring crime and antisocial behaviour, recording one of the lowest rates of antisocial behaviour incidents in England and Wales and praising its neighbourhood policing teams, including the use of virtual-reality headsets in schools to educate children about knife crime. The report also highlights improvements since the previous inspection. A cause of concern over emergency call answering, issued in the previous PEEL inspection, has been closed after the constabulary raised the percentage of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds to 89.8 percent, and cut the proportion of abandoned non-emergency calls from 36.9 percent to 11.6 percent. Inspectors also praised the constabulary's financial management, noting its £193 million annual funding was being used transparently and that it held a sustainable medium-term financial plan. Inspectors identified the constabulary's in-house approach to artificial intelligence as promising practice, highlighting a collaboration with Norfolk Constabulary that has automated the analysis of vehicle telematics data to understand driver behaviour and fatigue. Separately, an AI tool used to help populate Domestic Violence Protection Notice applications was found to have cut the average completion time from three-and-a-half hours to two, though the report stresses this still requires "careful human monitoring for accuracy". ## The bottom line Suffolk's police and crime commissioner is entitled to point to genuine strengths in this report, from falling antisocial behaviour to faster 999 call answering. But the inspectorate's own grading tells a different story: a force rated good on one measure out of nine, and found wanting on two of the areas that matter most when someone is at risk of harm. Inspectors have given Suffolk Constabulary three months to show it can fix its approach to safeguarding. Whether that timeline is met will say more about the state of policing in Suffolk than any press release. Support our journalism ****Suffolk's police watchdog found just one "good" rating out of nine. The PCC called it "a good report."** Inspectors flagged a backlog of over 500 unassessed Clare's Law applications and a custody handover process still putting detainees at risk. We're holding the constabulary to the inspectorate's findings — not its press release. Help us continue doing it by becoming a member for just £6 per month. 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