Gloucestershire Police rated as 'inadequate' in tackling serious and organised crime
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services inspected the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit.
Last updated 12th Jun 2025
A report has found that improvements are needed in the South West’s regional response to serious and organised crime
The police inspectorate has found that the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit and its regional police forces need to improve how they work together to tackle serious and organised crime.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspected the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit and regional police forces.
The South West Regional Organised Crime Unit has been graded as adequate;
Gloucestershire Police has been graded as inadequate .
The report detailed that in Gloucestershire they found little evidence of leadership at chief officer level or accountability for serious and organised crime (SOC) performance.
Concerns were also raised that the force's SOC unit was under-resourced, especially with qualified detectives.
Some forces in the region didn’t have enough personnel to fully assess the intelligence.
Examples were found of forces undertaking investigations involving organised crime groups, even though the groups hadn’t been formally threat assessed.
The inspectorate found that the unit had found it difficult to recruit personnel.
While the vacancy rate had reduced in the 12 months prior to the inspection, HMICFRS said that to address resource problems, the unit had recruited staff with little experience of investigating serious and organised crime.
Inspectors heard that personnel in regional forces have difficulty accessing individual IT systems, making it harder for them to do their jobs.
Inspectors said that the unit and police forces in the region need to work together to successfully improve their response to tackle serious and organised crime.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Andy Cooke said: “The South West Regional Organised Crime Unit regularly reviews what worked well in its serious and organised crime operations.
"It was positive to see it effectively manages support requests from forces and other agencies, and appoints senior officers to lead on regional priorities.
“But the unit and its regional forces need to improve how they assess threats and how they work together to tackle serious and organised crime.
"We found inconsistences among the performance of the regional forces.
"It was troubling to hear about the recruitment issues faced by forces, meaning personnel are not always as experienced as they should be.
"And IT across forces isn’t well connected, making it harder for personnel to do their jobs.
“We will be working closely with the unit and monitoring its progress against our recommendations.”
Gloucestershire's Assistant Chief Constable Rich Ocone, lead for Crime, Justice and Vulnerability, said: “We’re disappointed with the findings of this inspection and don’t believe it represents how we’re tackling serious and organised crime today in Gloucestershire.
“The Constabulary has been working hard over the past year to improve areas the inspectors highlighted as needing improvement immediately following the inspection.
“We’re committed to providing our communities with the best policing services and have continued to take on board the suggestions made to us, refreshing our improvement plan when HMICFRS sent us its draft report three months ago.”
He added: “This report focuses on the effects of a change in operating model in 2023 and investigations that started not long after its inception and a lot has changed in the past 12 months.
“We’ve also seen changes in senior leadership positions and the launch of the Gloucestershire Rapid Improvement Plan (GRIP) – a plan which sets out how we intend to improve our performance over the next 12 months. The GRIP specifically outlines how we will continue to tackle SOC and demonstrates our recognition of the fact it must be treated as a priority.
“One of the key issues raised in the report is whether we have sufficiently trained, skilled and experienced investigators to deal with SOC threats.
“Earlier this year, we moved 20 investigators into specialist crime investigation roles primarily to enhance our ability to investigate child protection cases well but they also provide us with greater resilience in tackling SOC threats.
“We’re also in the process of finalising plans to move more officers into specialist crime roles in the next few months.”
HMICFRS recognised the Constabulary has a dedicated SOC unit and that it had secured additional funding prior to the inspectorate’s visit to increase the number of financial investigators, a key resource in effectively tackling SOC threats.
It also found the force provide training and support for its Lead Responsible Officers – officers responsible for leading disruption and enforcement interventions against Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) – and that their workload was manageable.
In addition, it recognised innovative work with a local college to develop a five-year analytical apprenticeship scheme – which had at the time of inspection led to the recruitment of five additional intelligence analysts.
ACC Ocone said: “HMICFRS said we work well with partners to prevent SOC and protect victims at a local level.
“Its report signals out examples of local policing teams working with partner agencies to tackle SOC – specifically praising Response teams for carrying out hot spot patrols; PCSOs delivering talks to children in schools; drones being used to track drug dealers using electric scooters and that officers across the force had a good knowledge of the process to safeguard vulnerable people using multi-agency arrangements.
“This is the second time in as many months that HMICFRS has recognised our partnership working and we’re proud of the relationships we have with other agencies in the county.
“One example of the success of our work with partners was in Cheltenham last summer. We cleared OCGs out of The Moors and St Paul's areas of the town, prevented other OCGs moving in, and then worked with local councils, schools, NHS, housing agencies, the fire service and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to start building a better future for those communities. Operation Endeavour was part of the nationally recognised ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ approach.
“Of course, there is always room for improvement but we are confident we have the necessary leadership in place and that throughout the organisation there’s a solid grasp of the risks associated with SOC and how to address them.”