Executive Summary

This report summarises the findings of the evaluation in Levenmouth 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) Levenmouth was identified as an area for this project. Since February 2023, we have conducted a survey gathering views on confidence in policing in Levenmouth in Winter 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 Summer/early Autumn 2023 local policing in Levenmouth implemented a range of initiatives based on this community feedback. These included increasing community officer engagement, hosting pop up events, supervisors "walking the beat", holding a Quarterly Public Forum, creating a presentation giving an overview of policing, creating community leaflets/newsletter, revising social media approach, and promoting communications via Improving Levenmouth Together (ILT).

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

• A survey with those 16 and over mirroring one conducted in Feb-Mar 2023;
• Questions with children in local primary schools mirroring questions from February 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 Levenmouth population and should be considered indicative only.

16 and Over Survey

• The majority of respondents didn’t notice any of the initiatives undertaken
  by local policing.
• Overall, the rate of trust increased between Feb-Mar 2023 and Nov-Dec 2023. Rates of confidence recorded during this period remained ‘low’.
• 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’.
• A higher proportion feel Levenmouth does has a sense of community. There was an increase in those who ‘strongly agreed/agreed’ and ‘disagreed’/strongly disagreed’ between Feb-Mar 2023 and Nov-Dec 2023.
• Comments on Levenmouth largely centred around anti-social behaviour, with some mention of police response times, police visibility, drugs, and a lack of police funding.

Under 16 Survey

• The under 16 survey was distributed to the local secondary school in Levenmouth.
• No responses were received for the under 16 survey. It is, therefore, not possible to determine if any changes in responses occurred compared to the previous survey from Feb-Mar 2023.

Community Group Input

• The project was positively received in the community and by partners.
• Members of the ILT found that the initiatives put in place had a positive impact on the local community.
• The ILT have worked closely with the police in a range of areas which have contributed to community cohesion post-COVID.
• Concerns have been raised around the non-engagement with young people in the community and increases in anti-social behaviour, and in ensuring that a stable local community inspector team remains in place to continue their positive work.