Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary often fails to meet its own targets for emergency and priority calls, an independent report has found.

Despite positive findings, “capacity to meet all demand is stretched”, the report says, as the force struggles to meet demand in both response and call waiting times.  

The report follows an assessment by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services in order to determine police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy at the force for 2021/22.

The report stated: “The force fails to attend emergency and priority calls for service within its target response times on too many occasions.

“The force assigns a grade to incidents that need police attendance, according to the level of threat, harm and risk. The most urgent incidents are assigned grade 1. The target response time for grade 1 is 15 minutes.

“The force told us that from April 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022, it attended 65.2 percent of grade 1 calls within its target time. Incidents requiring a priority response are assigned grade 2. The target response time grade 2 is 60 minutes.

“The force told us that from 1 April 2022 to 31 October 2022, it attended 57.2 percent of grade 2 calls within 60 minutes. We checked 14 incidents in which there had been delays and in four of these, the caller hadn’t been told of the delay.

“Failing to attend calls within target response times may put victims at risk, result in lost evidence and undermine public confidence in the police.”

The report also added: “The force fails to answer calls quickly enough on too many occasions. Abandoned calls may mean callers give up trying to contact the police, which could lead to crimes going unreported and victims not being supported.”

In a statement, Chief Constable of Hampshire and isle of Wight Constabulary, Scott Chilton said: “Whilst there are a lot of positives in the report and the vast majority of the public support the police, this crucial relationship becomes strained when policing does not respond or engage well enough.

“Our communities need to have better information about what is happening, who is responsible for causing the misery, and to know that their police force is doing something about it.

“It is important to me that investigations are carried out in a timely way, with victims being kept updated well, as I want people to feel confident to report crime.

“Together, we are building something local and very exciting in Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary.

“As well as being a chief constable and a local resident, many of my family and friends also live here. I have the same expectation that our communities do, that Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is not just safe for everyone, but feels safe too.”