Public perceptions of the police and local partners
Year ending September 2008
The British Crime Survey (BCS) measures people’s ratings of their local police in terms of how good a job they do. From October 2007 new questions were included in the BCS relating to perceptions of the police working with local agencies to tackle the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in the local area. These were developed to reflect a greater emphasis on partnership working for use in the new 'Making Communities Safer' Public Service Agreement (PSA 23). This report details the first annual set of these new measures.
Title: Public perceptions of the police and local partners
Author: Katharine Thorpe
Series: Supplement to Home Office Statistical Bulletin 01/09
Number of pages: 11
Date published: April 2009
Availability: Download full report 
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The British Crime Survey has measured respondents’ ratings of their local police since its inception in 1982 by asking whether respondents agreed that their local police were doing a fairly or very good job. Since then a number of additional questions have been devised in the BCS to specifically monitor performance of the police at force level and more recently the police working in partnership with local partners.
BCS interviews during the 12 months to September 2008 show that 46% of adults agreed that the police and local councils were dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in the local area. 42% agreed that the police and local councils sought people’s views about anti-social behaviour and crime issues
Perceptions of the police and local councils in dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime in the local area varied across socio-demographic and socio-economic groups. In general, older people, women, people on lower incomes and people who had not been a victim of crime in the last twelve months were more likely to agree that the police and local councils were dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in the local area. For example:
Women were more likely to agree than men (49% and 43% respectively). Both men and women aged 65 or over were more likely to agree than younger age groups. Whilst there is no clear trend for respondents who had no opinion, men of all ages were more likely to disagree with this question than women.
People from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds were more likely to agree than those from White backgrounds (53% compared with 45%). Respondents who had been a victim of BCS crime in the last 12 months were less likely to agree that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime in the local area than those who had not been a victim (40% and 48% respectively).
People in routine and manual occupations (48%) were more likely to agree that the police and local councils were dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime in the local area than people in managerial and professional (43%), and intermediate occupations (44%). In part, this is due to people in managerial and professional (32%) and intermediate occupations (31%) being more likely to have no opinion than people in routine and manual occupations (27%).
People living in Hard Pressed ACORN areas (48%) were more likely to agree that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime in the local area than those living in Urban Prosperity (44%), Moderate Means (45%) and Comfortably Off areas (46%). However, people living in Hard Pressed ACORN areas (28%) were also more likely to disagree than those living in Urban Prosperity areas (23%) and Comfortably Off (25%). This is in part because people living in Hard Pressed ACORN areas were less likely to have no opinion than those living in all other ACORN areas.
Similarly, social renters (49%) were more likely to agree than private renters (47%) and owner occupiers (45%). However, social renters (27%) were also more likely to disagree than private renters and owner occupiers (21% and 25% respectively). In part, this is because private renters and owner occupiers (32% and 30%) were more likely to have no opinion compared to social renters (24%).
Factors strongly associated with agreement that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues in the area
The findings show that a range of demographic and socio-economic characteristics are associated with agreement that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues in the area, such as not being a victim of crime in the last 12 months, being white, female and older. However, it is likely that many of these factors are interrelated, so the author analysed the data to find the factors most strongly associated with agreement that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime:
Perceiving that the local police can be relied on to deal with minor crimes
Perceiving that the police deal with people fairly and/or with respect
And, to a lesser degreee the following factors
Seeing a police officer or PCSO on foot patrol
Age of respondent (35 and over)
Not perceiving the crime rate in the local area to have increased a lot
Not having a high level of perceived anti-social behaviour
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Last update: Tuesday, April 28, 2009