Background & Context

 In 2022 the Authority commissioned the Diffley Partnership to carry out public polling on a six-monthly basis, aligned to the Authority’s mission of overseeing Scottish policing in the public interest.

The polling exercises undertaken by the Diffley Partnership use the established ScotPulse national polling panel to gather independent, non-self-selecting and representative data for the Scottish adult population.  Core questions relating to public confidence and trust in the police are asked every six months, with additional supplementary questions being asked to address topical policing issues of public interest e.g. policing and its role in mental health safeguarding, the policing of antisocial behaviour, and views on policing culture.

The approach being taken to establish the public’s views on policing in Scotland contributes to the Authority’s vision of evidence-based policing in the public interest, by providing a large sample which is as representative as possible of the diverse profile of the Scottish population.

 This paper summarises three pieces of work arising from recent public polling activity:

• Public Polling Results from August 2024 – part of the regular six-monthly polling work
• A deeper dive analysis of confidence and trust in the police in remote / rural Scotland
• Qualitative analysis of focus groups, specifically examining why some people have low confidence and trust in the police.

The detailed reports for each of these three pieces of work can be found in the appendices to this paper, which contain data, insights and conclusions.