Evaluation

Community Confidence Evaluation Survey

Between 3rd July and 20th August 2023 an evaluation survey was conducted to gather the views of those aged 16 and over on Letham and confidence in policing. Questions were made available online via SPA Citizen Space page and on paper via community organisations with a freepost envelope to the SPA office for returns. There was also the option to request another format if required. In total there were 27 responses to the survey.

Key findings included:

The majority of respondents were unaware of initiatives undertaken by local policing;

Overall, rates of confidence and trust decreased between Autumn 2022 and July/August 2023. This is similar to the downward trend in confidence documented in SPA national polling between July 2022 and 2023;
When disaggregated by awareness of initiatives, those who were aware tended to have high confidence and trust in policing and felt local police were doing a ‘very good/somewhat good job’. Those who were not aware tended to have low confidence and trust in policing and felt local police were doing a ‘somewhat poor/very poor job’;

While a higher proportion still feel Letham has a sense of community, there was a decrease in those who ‘strongly agreed/agreed’ and an increase in those who ‘disagreed/strongly disagreed’ between Autumn 2022 and July/August 2023. Comments largely centred around anti-social behaviour, crime and drug dealing along with some mention of fears of safety and police visibility.

Community Confidence Evaluation Under 16s Survey

The majority of pupils who responded appeared to view policing positively with little variation from January 2023.

It appears there has been limited awareness of initiatives that have been implemented in Letham with the main things noticed over the year groups being officers at events/the school and seeing more police cars.

Community Reflections

The project has given a greater understanding of policing.

Greater communication was suggested along with ideas for fostering community relationships (e.g. hot desks in community).

The Community Police Officers were viewed positively, but concerns were raised about availability impacting benefit (e.g. pulled away for response) and nature of short-term trial.

The PPCW outreach officer was viewed as an asset.

It should be noted that due to small sample sizes and the non-representative nature of the samples the findings of these surveys cannot be generalised to the entire Letham population and should be considered indicative only.

The full evaluation report is available here on the SPA website.