Kent Police has got better at call handling, improved outcomes for victims and won strong praise for how it supports its workforce. But the latest HMICFRS inspection says the force still falls short in some of the areas that matter most for legitimacy: how it records force, how thinly that force is independently scrutinised, and why Black people remain disproportionately likely to be stopped and searched and subjected to force.
Let us start with the ugly, because that is where this report bites hardest. The latest PEEL inspection says Black people were 2.6 times more likely than White people to be stopped and searched by Kent Police in the year to 31 March 2025, and 2.9 times more likely than White people to be subjected to use of force. HMICFRS Kent Police Peel 2025-27 Report says Kent analyses those disparities, but still needs to “better understand” its disproportionate use of stop and search, and “better understand and explain” its disproportionate use of force, and take action to reduce both. That is not the language of a watchdog that thinks the force has got this issue under control.
Those figures look starker, not softer, when set against the population Kent Police serves. In the Kent County Council area, 89.4 percent of residents identified within the White ethnic group at the 2011 Census, while 2.6 percent identified within the Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African group. Medway is more diverse, but it too remained majority White in 2021, at 84.3 percent, with 5.6 percent of residents identifying within the Black ethnic group. So these are not disparities appearing in a force area where the population mix makes them unsurprising. In raw numbers, White residents may still account for the larger share of encounters simply because they make up most of the population. But HMICFRS is measuring rates. And on that measure, Black residents are facing stop and search and force at materially higher rates. Put simply, if two groups were the same size, and White residents were stopped 10 times, a 2.6 times disparity would mean Black residents were stopped about 26 times. If White residents were subjected to force 10 times, a 2.9 times disparity would mean Black residents were subjected to force about 29 times. That is what the watchdog’s ratios mean in real life.
That is why the awkward question will not go away. Is Kent Police institutionally racist? The reports do not make that formal finding, and it would be wrong to pretend they do. But they do leave the issue hanging heavily in the air. If Black residents are disproportionately stopped and searched and disproportionately subjected to force, and the force still cannot adequately explain why, then the problem stops looking like a few isolated encounters and starts looking institutional. If this is not the product of institutional bias or institutional failure, then what institutional mechanism is producing it? And why is Kent still being told, after earlier warnings, that it needs to get a better grip on disproportionality?
The force’s wider accountability problems make those questions harder, not easier, to dismiss. In the year to 31 March 2025, Kent Police recorded 19,444 use-of-force incidents. HMICFRS says it should have recorded 29,565, leaving a likely shortfall of 10,121 incidents on its broader measure; even on the narrower arrests comparison, inspectors say the force under-recorded force by at least 2,515 incidents. Inspectors also reviewed 20 pieces of body-worn video and the associated paperwork. In 14 of those 20 cases, they found the documentation did not contain enough detail or rationale to justify why force was used, the level of force used or the specific tactic chosen. That does not prove unlawful force in those individual cases. But it does show a force still failing too often at one of the most basic tests of police accountability: recording and explaining coercive power properly.
Nor does outside scrutiny look strong enough to settle public nerves. In the latest report, HMICFRS says Kent’s independent public panel met only three times in the preceding year rather than the planned four. Across the whole year, it reviewed just 11 stop-and-search cases and 4 use-of-force cases, which the inspectorate called an “insufficient level of independent scrutiny”. What makes that more uncomfortable is the contrast with the HMICFRS 2023–25 report. Back then, HMICFRS said Kent had “good internal and external oversight” of stop and search and found officers’ behaviour in the body-worn video footage it reviewed to be “exemplary”. Even then, though, it warned that the panel needed better information and a sharper focus on “key issues, such as disproportionality”. So this is not some brand-new problem dropping from a clear sky. It is a longstanding concern that has become harder and more explicit.
That is the ugly. The bad is the list of things Kent has improved only partly, or not enough. Safeguarding is a good example. In the earlier report, Kent was graded good at protecting vulnerable people. In the later one, safeguarding children and adults at risk of harm is only adequate. HMICFRS found schools had been notified about children exposed to domestic abuse in only 10 of 15 relevant cases, and information had been shared with appropriate agencies in only 18 of 28 relevant cases reviewed. It also found inconsistency in how missing person investigations were handled across the force’s three divisions. For a police force, that is not just an administrative wobble. It means vulnerable people may be getting different levels of protection depending on who picks up the job and where.
Investigations tell a similar story. Kent has improved outcomes for victims, but it still has an old weakness when cases are closed. In the latest report, HMICFRS says there was effective supervision in finalising crimes in only 49 of 73 cases reviewed. It also says the force should improve how it supervises investigations, especially when closing cases, and should make sure the correct outcome is recorded. That matters because justice is not just about whether a case is worked hard; it is also about whether it is finalised properly, transparently and lawfully.
Response policing is better than it was, but still not tidy. In the 2023–25 report, Kent answered only 69.4 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds, well below the 90 percent standard, and 33.4 percent of non-emergency 101 calls were being abandoned. In the new report, Kent answered 93.6 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds, above the national standard, and HMICFRS says non-emergency performance has improved as well. But the force still was not attending incidents quickly enough in too many cases. In the quality service review, 28 of 39 incidents were attended within the required time, meaning 11 were not. So Kent has got better at answering the phone, but it is still too often late getting through the door.
Now for the good, because there is some, and pretending otherwise would be as lazy as pretending the ugly bits do not matter. HMICFRS says Kent has strengthened how it responds to the public and investigates crime since the last inspection. It says the force has improved how it attracts, develops and retains its workforce, rating that area outstanding. It also says positive outcomes for victim-based crime reached 12.4 percent in the year ending 30 June 2025, slightly above the England and Wales median of 12.2 percent. That is real progress, not decorative spin.
The force also retains strengths that should not be airbrushed away. The earlier report found the overwhelming majority of recorded grounds for stop and search were reasonable, while the later report says the force is using stop and search powers well and had a linked find rate of 33.1 percent in the year ending 31 March 2025, above the typical range nationally. The earlier report also praised neighbourhood policing, partnership problem-solving and crime prevention. So this is not a force with nothing going for it. It is a force with genuine operational strengths and measurable progress in some important areas.
But that is also why the hardest questions matter. A force can improve its call handling, support its staff better and still have a deep legitimacy problem if it cannot convincingly explain how fairly it uses power. Kent Police is entitled to say it has improved. It is not entitled to pretend that settles the argument. Because the central question in this report is not whether Kent has got better at some things. It plainly has. The central question is whether Kent can yet reassure the public that its use of force is recorded properly, scrutinised properly and used fairly across racial lines. On the watchdog’s own findings, that answer is still not good enough.
The Shepway Vox Team
The Velvet Voices of Voxatiousness
