AN independent report has found significant improvements in how Surrey Police keeps the public safe and reduces crime.

The report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, covers effectiveness and rated the force overall as good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. It has also recognised the force’s ongoing commitment to understand the scale and nature of vulnerability across the county.

Chief constable Nick Ephgrave said: “We have and continue to work incredibly hard to ensure that we are providing a consistent service to the Surrey public, whether that is the investigation of a missing child, tackling recurring anti-social behaviour or proactively targeting serious and organised crime.

“The improvements that HMIC have seen are the result of significant investment and focus over the last two years. HMIC have rightly emphasised that we have made good progress on all of the recommendations that they made in their previous inspections in 2015.

“They had at that time found progress wasn’t adequate and that there were failures in some areas of our service.

“Putting victims at the centre of our investigations is a key focus for us, making sure they are kept well informed, feel supported and are safeguarded from future harm.

“While we know that there is more to be done to achieve our vision of making Surrey the safest county it can be, I’m pleased that all the work we’re doing to achieve this is starting to prove effective, but we are not complacent.”

The report is positive about how the force tackles the most chronic long term anti-social behaviour and crime. This has ensured that Surrey is below the national average for anti-social behaviour per 1,000 population for 12 months to March 31 2016.

And the force has significantly improved the service it provides to vulnerable people, particularly in relation to missing person investigations.

The report highlights that the Surrey has made impressive advancements in both the response to a person going missing as well as understanding the reasons why they have gone missing.

The report also praises the force as it continues to work well and share information with partner agencies, particularly in relation to serious and organised crime, anti-social behaviour and missing and exploited children.

Alongside this Surrey has increased the number of staff and supervisors working on complex and serious crimes, and has provided training to all front-line staff on mental health ensuring that they are well equipped to assist those in crisis.

The force and HMIC jointly identify areas that need more focus which includes improving the standard of investigations in to ‘less serious’ crime; working specifically on targeting perpetrators of domestic abuse; ensuring all frontline staff have the skills and expertise to investigate all crime types; and understanding and addressing reasons why victim satisfaction has dropped from 86 per cent (12 months to March 2015) to 81 per cent in the 12 months to March 31 2016.

Chief Constable Nick Ephgrave added: “The issues HMIC identify for improvement are areas we are putting considerable focus on, they are however long-standing historic problems for the force that are taking some time to address.

“The changes we have made over the last two years aim to tackle these persistent problems and we expect to show continued improvement in our future inspections building on the progress HMIC have recognised to date.”

Surrey Police was one of 28 forces in England and Wales to receive a ‘good’ rating. Inspections in the summer and autumn of 2015 found Surrey Police to be ‘inadequate’ in relation to vulnerability and ‘requiring improvement’ in relation to effectiveness.

This report is based on the most recent inspection of effectiveness conducted in November 2016.