Report Summary
This report outlines key findings from the joint SPA and Police Scotland survey conducted as part of the first phase of the Community Confidence Action Research Project work in Wick.
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Conclusions and Key Findings
When looking at the survey responses, the majority of respondents ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘agreed’ that Wick has a sense of community (70%, n=97). This is also reflected in the qualitative responses which identified that there is a strong community spirit found in Wick. It is also notable that many respondents reflected on recent changes associated with the impacts of deprivation in the area – signalling that the selected intermediate data zone/area is an appropriate centre to focus the project on. Furthermore, respondents perceive there to be an increasing rise in antisocial behaviour and drug use in the area.
In terms of confidence in police in the local area, over the range of indicators the highest proportion of respondents scored ‘Low’ across all categories. Similarly, regarding trust in policing for Wick, ‘Low’ confidence was scored by the highest proportion of respondents. For all indicators except ‘In general’, the second most common score was ‘Medium’ following the ‘Low’ score (for ‘in general’ the second most common score was ‘High’).
When scoring how good a job local policing were doing in the area, the highest proportion of respondents selected ‘A somewhat poor/very poor job’ across all scenarios. For the indicators of ‘tackling anti-social behaviour’ and ‘bringing the community together’ this response is reflective in SPA National Polling, but for the categories ‘policing in general’, ‘keeping your area safe’ and ‘tackling crime’ a higher proportion of respondents select ‘A very good/somewhat good job’ nationally.
The majority of respondents noted no changes in local police engagement and stated that their view of policing locally had not changed in the past six months. When asked to provide a qualitative response to this matter, comments largely related to a lack of police presence and visibility. There seemed to be a desire for local policing to become more embedded and respond to the community’s needs. Multiple responses noted resourcing issues currently associated with the police service, and advised more targeted ways of working to address the priority issues identified by respondents.
