FOR the second year running, Kent Police has been rated as one of the top performing forces in the country in a national review.

The findings reflect the force’s work to reduce crime, improve its service, increase the number of offences brought to justice and reassure people that Kent remains one of the safest parts of the country.

The force has been rated joint seventh overall out of 43 police forces in the new combined Police Performance Assessment, which brings together two previous sets of measures.

Kent comes second in its group of eight similar forces and is rated third nationally in one element that makes up the new performance assessment, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary’s Baseline Assessment, improving on its fifth position last year.

The force is also listed as improving in five of the seven areas of policing rated in the performance assessment. These are: reducing crime, promoting safety, citizen focus, resource use and local policing.

Its performance in the ‘providing assistance’ category remains unchanged over previous years and is rated excellent when compared with similar forces, but performance in investigating crime is rated fair.

The force is particularly pleased with its improved performance in the Baseline Assessment element of the combined figures, sharing third position with the larger West Midlands force – last year Kent came fifth.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, which scrutinises all aspects of policing in its comprehensive review, rated the force as ‘excellent’ in five areas of policing, ‘good’ in 18 and ‘fair’ in three. Kent was not judged ‘poor’ in any inspection category.

Chief Constable Mike Fuller said: “This is a credit to the commitment of all our officers and staff who work so hard to serve communities across Kent and keep the county safe.

“This year’s assessment was conducted against higher standards and covered new areas, so improving on an already strong base is a real achievement, highlighting outstanding performance year on year.

“We will not be complacent, though, as we are determined to improve our services even further, particularly to tackle those areas where we could do better.”

Kent Police Authority chair Ann Barnes said: “The annual assessment highlights the excellent work of Kent Police over the last year to improve performance and every police officer and member of staff should be congratulated on that success.

“However, there are still areas of performance that need to be improved, such as tackling violent crime and improving detection rates. As the police authority for Kent our focus over the coming year will be to help the force build on this success and tackle those areas of performance that need improving, so we can continue to deliver a first class police service for the people of Kent.”

Baseline Assessment details:

Improvement on last year’s performance includes an additional ‘excellent’ grade, two more areas where the force is judged ‘good’ and one more area graded ‘fair’, the category defined as an acceptable level of performance.

Kent is the only force in the country to be rated ‘excellent’ in its approach to race and diversity, having also received praise from the Commission for Racial Equality for its policies.

It is one of only three rated ‘excellent’ in customer service and accessibility - earlier this year the force introduced the Kent Standard setting out the levels of service that the public can expect. The force also rated ‘excellent’ in call management, recognising the achievements of its communications centre to meet targets and manage calls from the public effectively.

Resource management and science and technology were also rated ‘excellent’.

Kent was rated ‘good’ in categories including investigating major and serious crime and its ability to deal with those responsible for these types of crime.

Its ‘fair’ gradings were for investigating what is known as ‘volume’ crime (the more common crimes such as burglary and car crime), for neighbourhood policing and investigating hate crime.

However, the Chief Constable is confident that continuing work in these areas will start to show a real difference, both in the service the people of Kent see and receive and in future assessments.

He said: "I believe that the foundations and good practice we have established will result in the service we want and improve the quality of life of the people of Kent and how safe they feel.

“I am particularly pleased with the ‘good’ grades for serious and major crime. Historically, Kent has a strong reputation in these areas and I’m delighted that our continuing ability to protect the public has been recognised.”