Confidence and Trust in Police

In terms of confidence in police in the local area, over the range of indicators a higher proportion of respondents scored ‘Low’ for:

Keeping your area safe (42%, n=24)

Tackling antisocial behaviour (44%, n=25)

Preventing crime (40%, n=23)

Tackling crime (39%, n=22)

Responding quickly (37%, n=21)

For all of these the next most common score was ‘Medium’, and in some cases the margin between ‘Low’ and ‘Medium’ was relatively small.

A higher proportion of respondents scored ‘Medium’ for:

Providing an appropriate and timely response (42%, n=24)

Being there when you need them (47%, n=27)

General (42%, n=24)

‘General’ was the only response where a higher proportion scored ‘High’ than ‘Low’ (although as noted the highest proportion scored ‘Medium).

Regarding trust, the highest proportion of respondents across all categories scored ‘Medium’. For all except ‘In general’, the second most common score was ‘Low’ (for ‘in general’ the trend mirrors that with confidence with the second most common being ‘High’). 

Regarding the performance of police in their local area, the highest proportion of respondents selected ‘A neither good nor poor job’ across all scenarios. Contrastingly, SPA national polling showed a higher proportion of respondents selecting a negative response for ‘tackling anti-social behaviour’ and ‘bringing the community together’ and a positive response for ‘policing in general’, ‘keeping your area safe’ and ‘tackling crime’.

For ‘In general’, ‘Tackling crime’ and ‘Keeping your area safe’, the second most common response for the Letham respondents was ‘a very good/somewhat good job’.

For ‘tackling anti-social behaviour’ and ‘bringing the community closer together’ the second most common response was ‘a somewhat poor/very poor job’.