An independent report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has praised Durham Constabulary for its innovative work in taking on Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs), awarding it an Outstanding rating for disrupting serious and organised crime across the force area.

It has also said that the force requires improvement in its response to the public and in protecting vulnerable people.

In the last few months, the constabulary has seen:

• Seven members of the same violent gang who terrorised the streets of Horden jailed for a total of 95 years as part of Operation Coastal.
• Five people appear in court after a string of house burglaries across east Durham, including elderly victims and parents threatened in front of their children, as part of Operation Iceberg.
• A South Durham money launderer jailed for 16 years and his two associates jailed for six years each for transporting Class A drugs to be sold on the streets of South Durham.
• A dozen firearms seized and two men jailed as part of Operation Mermaid targeting a Langley Park illegal armoury believed to supply weapons to organised crime.
• Four arrested and 2000 plants seized in a raid on a Ferryhill cannabis farm.

Acting Chief Constable, Ciaron Irvine said: “Organised crime causes very real harm to our communities, including violence, intimidation and the supply of drugs.

“Our officers will take on organised crime whenever and wherever we find it and in the last year our teams have taken significant numbers of criminals, drugs and weapons off the streets.”

Durham was also rated Good in the HMICFRS Peel report for preventing and deterring crime.

Inspectors highlighted a string of forward-thinking programmes which have saved thousands of people from potentially falling victim to crime.

Projects highlighted include the innovative Wide prevention programme which achieved a 64% reduction in burglary in hot spot areas of East Durham and action to reduce violence against women and girls in Darlington’s night-time economy.

The force was also assessed as being Good at properly recording crime, with the report highlighting work to make sure rape and other sexual offences are correctly recorded.

Although the HMICFRS Peel report did not highlight any identifiable causes for concern, it did assess the force as Requiring Improvement in terms of responding to the public, particularly in terms of call handling times for 101 calls, and protecting vulnerable people.

The force has reported that an extra 15 call handlers and nine switchboard staff have since been recruited to work in the Force Control Room, alongside a new switchboard triage system.

As a result, the average time to answer a 101 call has halved in recent months and, despite a significant increase in call volume, average 999 answer times have remained consistent with over 75% of calls being answered within 10 seconds.

Regarding vulnerable people, a dedicated team has since been set up which has contributed to 74 Domestic Violence Prevention Orders, a legal tool which protects victims from their abusers, being applied for at court so far this year with six custodial sentences being issued by the courts in recent months for the breaches of these orders.

The force has also put in extra resources to speed up applications under Clare’s Law and Sarah’s Law; has significantly increased the number of cases going before Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences and has tightened up procedures around immediately recording high risk categories for missing people.

Acting Chief Constable Irvine added: “Investment has been made in the Force Control Room and the speed at which we answer both 999 and 101 calls has increased significantly in recent months.

“Whilst there will be some concern that overall grades for the Constabulary are lower, this must be seen in the context of the new inspection regime and I am confident that Durham Constabulary remains among the best performing police forces in the country.”