Executive Summary

This report summarises the findings of the evaluation in Letham as part of the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland’s Community Confidence Action Research Project.

Using a range of data (such as Scottish Government statistics) Letham was identified as an area for this project. Since August 2022, we have conducted a survey gathering views on confidence in policing in Letham in Autumn and held a number of events over Spring 2023 to gather ideas on how confidence in policing could be enhanced in the local area.

In Spring/early Summer 2023 local policing in Perth and Kinross implemented a range of initiatives based on this community feedback. These included introducing named community officers, hosting pop up events, developing links with local organisations, promoting the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers, and creating a presentation giving an overview of policing.

To evaluate the initiatives a three-pronged approach has been taken:

A survey with those 16 and over mirroring one conducted in Sept-Nov 2022;

Questions with children in a local primary school mirroring questions from January 2023; and

Conversations with community representatives

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.

Key findings:

16 and Over Survey

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

Overall, rates of confidence and trust decreased between Sept-Nov 2022 and July/August 2023. This is similar to the downward trend in confidence documented in SPA national polling between July 2022 and 2023.

Those who were aware of at least one initiative 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 of any initiatives 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 Sept-Nov 2022 and July/August 2023.

Comments on Letham largely centred around anti-social behaviour, crime and drug dealing along with some mention of fears of safety and police visibility.

Under 16 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 Group Input

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.