A step in the right direction
The study sets out the perceptions of people who contacted the police to report anti-social behaviour – their understanding of ‘anti-social behaviour’, its impact on their lives, their perceptions of how the police and other agencies deal with it, and how they may react to similar occurrences in the future.
Head of Crime and Policing Research at Ipsos, Ashley Ames, said:
"This robust set of research findings represents a positive shift in public opinions towards the police. People who have called their local force to report anti-social behaviour now feel better listened to, treated more seriously and given more information than they did two years ago. The improvements are impressive given the relatively short amount of time that forces have had to implement changes to their handling of calls since HMIC's Stop the Rot report in 2010, and mean that larger majorities of callers are now positive overall about their contact with the police."Despite the positive shifts in opinion, there are still clear areas for improvement; one in four have felt the need to make a report to the police on over five occasions within the past year, whilst over one in three callers are unsure whether any action was taken as a result of their call. These findings are more pronounced across vulnerable groups, including people living in the most deprived communities and those with disabilities.
That said, the findings overall are clearly a step in the right direction and something for forces to build upon. The importance of dealing with calls efficiently and appropriately is highlighted by the strong association with broader public views of the police. The more that police can do to learn from these findings and improve the experiences of callers further, the greater the improvements to overall public confidence in the service."
Technical note
Wave 1 was conducted between 4 May and 3 June 2010. Telephone interviews were conducted with a random selection of 5699 people across England and Wales who, according to local police records, had contacted the police to report anti-social behaviour during September 2009. Wave 2 was conducted between 7 February and 22 March 2012. Telephone interviews were conducted with a random selection of 9311 people across England and Wales who, according to local police records, had contacted the police to report anti-social behaviour during September 2011 (or since December 2010 in the case of City of London and September or November 2011 in the case of Dyfed Powys).
