A new survey has been launched by EMAC Senior Research Fellow, Dave Hill.
I have decided to embark on a journey to investigate the complex issue of trust and confidence, and I want to start this journey by reversing the lens that is currently in place within policing in England and Wales which tends to take an outward looking focus on trust and confidence. The College of Policing (CoP) have produced a document with the title “Improving Public Confidence in the Police: An Evidence Based Guide” (2025). That document highlights the following points as “evidenced based” methods to improve public trust and confidence:
- Implementing neighbourhood policing – Having a targeted visible presence in crime and anti-social behaviour hot spots or places with low trust. – Community engagement to identify the crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter to people locally. – Carrying out effective problem-solving to tackle the issues that matter the most to local people. Policing with procedural and distributive justice–
- Making fair decisions and treating people respectfully. – Not being seen to over-police and under-protect communities.
- Improving police contact with victims– Responding to the needs and concerns of victims. – Focusing as much on the process as the end result.
- Improving police contact with suspects– Minimising the number of negative experiences. – Explaining enforcement action and preserving people’s dignity.
- Tackling police wrongdoing – Working within the law and adhering to ethical and professional standards.
Let’s use the language above but let’s turn it inwards, if we took the principles of neighbourhood policing and applied them internally within the policing organisation. In simple terms neighbourhood policing is about being present in the local community, understanding the problems faced by that community and taking steps to solve those problems to make the environment safer, to protect people and property and to deliver a service in a way that the community want policing to be delivered. If we take these principles and apply them internally then we would look to ensure the teams charged with delivering front line services feel listened to, they would feel that those charged with doing so would be focusing their efforts on the problems that are stopping them being able to deliver the service, or making them vulnerable and feeling unsafe in doing so and this would be done in a way that makes those teams feel well lead and supported.
The next point, “Making fair decisions and treating people respectfully”, this seems to be something that should be happening as a matter of course, so part of this ongoing research into the trust and confidence will look inward in relation to this to determine if it is something that is the norm across the organisations that make up policing in England and Wales.
The next two points relate to “Improving contact”, again we will explore the feedback from staff surveys, which, from my experience have clear evidence, from front line staff, that suggests that senior leadership across policing is essentially invisible. It is generally described as a “lack of visibility”. I watched, with interest, the recent Panorama documentary where an undercover reporter infiltrated the custody suite as a member of staff. What struck me during the documentary and what has struck me since is the lack of any mention of the senior leadership team at Charring Cross.
The last point that the “evidence based” guide highlights is “Tackling police wrongdoing”, let me be as clear as possible here, this is FAILURE! If we are in the position that a police officer or member of staff has behaved in a way that leads to a criminal or misconduct charge, then all the stuff above has failed, and we need to explore why and where that happened. It’s not just about tackling wrongdoing; it is about tackling why wrongdoers have been allowed to believe that their behaviour can be something that will not be called out, as soon as it is noticed. What are the systemic issues that allow this to get to this stage?
Organisational trust and confidence are a huge area of research that crosses academic boundaries, however, we need to start somewhere and so I have chosen to take the relevant questions from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is the key tool used to measure public trust and confidence in policing, and give them an inward twist. I am seeking volunteers from Constable, Sergeant and Police Staff members to take the attached survey. The only personal data I ask for is to let me know which of the three roles mentioned you hold and your length of service, the survey is only 12 questions and it’s a tick box so should only take a couple of minutes to complete. My intention is to use the data to inform further research and debate.
If you fit into one of the roles mentioned above and you want to contribute, please click on the link below and take the survey, thank you.
https://forms.clickup.com/4604368/f/4cgeg-752/JAD9NHGX1ZMVR4N7CD
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