The Authority is committed to understanding the public’s views on policing and works with Police Scotland to build and enhance confidence and trust in policing, using insights from public polling data and other sources.  A significant amount of work is underway across Scottish policing to deliver against our recently published Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.

The Authority’s understanding of public opinion on policing is based on conducting regular six-monthly public opinion surveys.  These have been taking place since the summer of 2022, with four sweeps of polling data now accumulated, amounting to 10,562 respondents from across Scotland.  The surveys are administered independently on the Authority’s behalf by the Diffley Partnership.

The Authority has launched a series of deeper dive analyses of the accumulated data, and this first deeper dive looks at women’s views about policing, relative to the population as a whole and in comparison with men.  The analysis also looks at variation among women, based on factors such as age, where people live, and the type of household they live in. 

For the population as a whole trust and confidence in Scottish policing remains strong, and most people think that the police are doing a good job (or are at least performing fairly).  The public does, however, think that the police could do better when it comes to building more cohesive communities, and in tackling antisocial behaviour, yet opinion is positive when it comes to tackling crime, protecting people and keeping communities safe.

Gender is an important factor in influencing levels of trust and confidence in the police, and views about policing performance, with women being more positive than men across a suite of indicators.  Notably women are more likely than men to say that the police care about them, are providing protection, and are listening and responding to their needs.  This does not mean that gender is a causal factor behind confidence and trust in policing – it simply means that there is a relationship between gender and views on policing.

Among women there is a great deal of variation depending on circumstances.  Women who live in a two-person household tend to be more confident in the police than those who live alone. Women who live in rural areas or small towns tend to have more confidence than those who live in urban areas.  Trust among women aged 65+ is higher than women aged 16-24, although the last 12 months has seen more younger women changing their level of trust positively than has been the case for other women.

Geography and deprivation continue to play a part, with women living in more affluent and rural communities expressing more confidence and trust in the police than other women, and rate police performance more positively.

The full report with data tables is available here.