Seldom Heard Communities Research

In 2021, along with Police Scotland and SIPR, the Authority funded five grants focused on supporting and informing policing engagement with seldom heard communities. On Wednesday 26 April 2023 Authority Member Tom Halpin and ACC Emma Bond supported the community impact event for this research, where the
grant recipients presented their findings. We know that engagement with some groups within our communities can be limited or challenging, whether they are geographical communities or communities of interest. It is critical for delivery of policing in Scotland that we understand barriers to engagement and work to build relationships with those communities which could be considered ‘seldom heard’. 5.2 This research will inform practice and processes going forward, focused on improving public trust and confidence in policing.

The Authority’s own independent public polling on confidence in policing tells us that older age groups display higher levels of confidence in policing than younger age groups. We also know that rural communities tend to have higher levels of confidence than urban areas, and that the most deprived communities, using the index of multiple deprivation, are less confident on every measure of confidence than those from the least deprived areas. Research such as this enhances and deepens our insights and will be invaluable to both the Authority and Police Scotland.