Acknowledgements

The Project Sponsors and Project Delivery Team members would like to
thank a large number of local and national organisations, statutory and
non-statutory, for the time and assistance they have given to the
Community Confidence Action Research Project over the duration of its
lifetime.

Many local community organisations from the third sector provided
valuable practical assistance to the Project, by offering up meeting rooms
at little or no cost, by promoting awareness of the Project among their
service users, by helping to encourage participation in the surveys and
community conversations, and also by giving advice to the Project Delivery
Team on how best to reach and involve local people and sustain their
interest. Without this level of support the Project would not have been
possible.

Officers from local authorities in each of the four areas also gave up their
time to support the Project, sharing local knowledge and expertise with the
Project Delivery Team, providing meeting rooms and workspaces, and also
facilitated the administration of surveys in local schools wherever this was
possible.

Local policing teams also supported the delivery of the Project in their
areas, and the Project Delivery Team is especially grateful to these officers
for their commitment and the priority they gave to the Project locally.
Inspectors and Sergeants from community policing teams also attended
and helped to lead community conversations, and did a lot of work behind
the scenes to help raise awareness of the Project with their local partners.

The Project Sponsors and Project Delivery Team are grateful for the hard
work and the candour that they witnessed.

The Project Sponsors would also like to acknowledge the expert advice,
contributions and guidance given by the diverse membership within the
Project’s Steering Group.

Finally, and most importantly, sincere thanks must go to all of the local
people who took the time to complete surveys, attend and participate in
community conversation meetings. People told their stories about their life
in the community, their experiences of crime and antisocial behaviour and,
and their experiences of police contact. The Project Sponsors are
especially grateful for these contributions, as well as for the ideas and
suggestions on how local policing might be improved. The topic of
confidence in the police is far from an easy one to discuss face-to-face
with police officers, in public and in a group setting, and the courage in this
regard should not be underestimated.