Our Role
Our core role is summarised in our mission statement:
Inspecting policing in the public interest
The public want the police to succeed in their mission to keep people safe and secure. It is in the public interest that the quality of policing in England, Wales and Northern Ireland keeps improving.
At HMIC, we monitor and report on forces and policing activity with the aim of encouraging improvement.
This includes chairing the Police Performance Steering Group, which decides whether support and intervention is necessary.
By providing accessible information on the performance of forces, we allow their public, and peers, to see how they are doing. This will place pressure on those forces falling below average in aspects of policing, to raise their game.
We will always try to see policing through the public’s eyes. We will use consumer ‘watchdog’ tactics, such as mystery shopping, and ask the public, in surveys, what they think about policing and where they want to see improvements.
Our reports will be clear, jargon-free and designed to be accessible, measured, objective, statistically reliable and authoritative.
We also continue to provide high-quality professional advice to police - using experienced officers and other experts, such as lawyers and accountants to identify the ‘best practice’ which all forces can aspire to. We will encourage operational excellence and, increasingly, a good deal for the public in terms of value for money.
We carry out many force inspections and regulatory visits each week, through our network of regional offices, and publish our findings within the Inspections area of this website.
Our reports on broad policing themes and specific subjects – from terrorism and serious organised crime to custody arrangements - can also be found in the Inspections area.
Much of our work relates to the mainstream police forces in England and Wales, together with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and British Transport Police.
However, we will also continue to inspect other law enforcement agencies, including the Serious Organised Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs.