Overview

In 2021 the Authority and Police Scotland initiated a 3-year participatory action research project, aimed at better understanding the link between socio-economic deprivation and lower levels of confidence in the police. The Project was co-sponsored by the Authority’s Chair and the Deputy Chief Constable for Local Policing.

The Project had four main aims, summarised below and described in greater detail in the final report (Appendix A):

• Enhance the policing system’s understanding of what drives public confidence in policing on a day-to-day community level.

• Improve relationships between the police and the public at a local level by improving community understanding and awareness of modern policing demands and challenges.

• Develop insights into what communities consider to be confidence-building, small-scale, sustainable interventions that the police and partners can put into effect.

• To develop a model for engagement and positive action that Police Scotland could adapt and adopt as appropriate to improve confidence in local policing across localities.

Between 2022 and 2024 the Community Confidence Action Research (CCAR) Project delivered a 7-step engagement model in four communities across Scotland, gathering data, observations and insights during the course of delivery. Key elements of the engagement model included: administering surveys to local residents and community groups; hosting community conversation events; and, via local policing teams in the respective areas, implementing small-scale and sustainable local policing initiatives (also known as ‘tests of change’).

The four communities that have taken part in the Project are: Letham (in Perth), Fullarton (in Irvine, North Ayrshire), Levenmouth (in Fife), and Wick (in Highland). Individual reports for each of the communities, at various steps in the engagement model, can be found on the Authority’s CCAR webpage.

In terms of next steps:

• Authority staff are preparing to convene a final engagement event early in the New Year, which will bring together local and national partners who will be invited to reflect on the Project, consider the insights and practical learning, and explore ways in which the approach can be extended by police and community planning networks across Scotland; and

• The CCAR Project will also continue to be promoted through relevant conference/seminar presentations over the course of 2024-25 and beyond.