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

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s report covers effectiveness and rated the force overall as ‘good’ at keeping people safe and reducing crime.

It also recognised Surrey’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 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 HMIC have seen are the result of significant investment and focus over the last two years. HMIC have rightly emphasised 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 there is more to be done to achieve our vision of making Surrey the safest county it can be, I’m pleased all the work we’re doing to achieve this is starting to prove effective, but we are not complacent.”

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

The report highlights that Surrey Police have 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 officers as they continue 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.

Surrey have increased staffing numbers and supervisors working on complex and serious crimes, and provided training on mental health to all front-line staff, to ensure they are well-equipped to assist those in crisis.

Surrey Police and HMIC jointly identified areas that need more focus including

• 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 up until March 2015) to 81 per cent in the 12 months up until March 2016.

Mr 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 were one of 28 forces in England and Wales to receive a “good” rating. Inspections in the summer and autumn of 2015 found them 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.