Engagement Hub

In April 2020, Police Scotland refreshed its local policing survey to gather views from Scotland’s diverse communities. Your Police 2020/2021 remained open throughout the year (it closed on 5 April 2021) and helped us understand your opinions of policing in your local area, as well as enable you to tell us about any concerns affecting your safety or wellbeing in your local area.

Your feedback helped us make sure that our approaches to policing were fair, in terms of how we are managing the Coronavirus pandemic, and by supporting the communities that we serve.

If you missed your chance to take part in Your Police last year, don't worry; you can take part in our new Your Police 2021/22! Don’t miss out on your chance to have your say and let us know how we’re doing in your community.

Strong levels of public confidence in the police was reported with the majority of people supporting our approach to keeping people safe during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In total, we received 36,542 responses over 12 months, including over 100,000 free-text responses. There were 1,867 responses received in March 2021 – highlighting the continued dedication of local policing divisions in listening to the communities they serve.

In the main, people say they have confidence in us, with the average public confidence level for the period April 2020 – April 2021 being broadly consistent at 57%. Confidence levels among organisations who responded to Your Police (277 organisations) continues to be higher than average at 71%. 

We learned that things which effect public confidence include changes to Covid-19 transmission rates locally and nationally, local lockdowns (Protection Level 4) and the national lockdown which began in January 2021. We also know that events taking place in local areas that attracted a large police presence had an impact on public confidence. Public confidence exists across all of our 13 local policing divisions.

The majority of the people who responded to Your Police told us that they feel safe in their local areas – an average of 84% of people said they felt safe. This has remained the case throughout the past year. However, we know that fear about the spread, or potential spread, of Covid-19 sometimes made some people feel less safe.

Overall, 62% of those who took part in Your Police told us that police are friendly and approachable. 38% of people said that the police listen to the concerns of local people and 34% said the police deal with local issues. Throughout the year, a large number of the public said that they ‘don’t know’ when asked about these measures. This highlights an opportunity for us to enhance and expand our engagement within Scotland’s diverse communities.

46% of people told us their concern about crime had remained the same (as before April 2020). Three in ten people said that their concerns about crime had increased during the pandemic (30%), while around one in ten said it had decreased (14%). We know that people with disabilities and those who live in our most deprived areas have more concern about crime. This is very important to us.  

Generally, people’s concerns have included: social distancing breaches and antisocial behaviour (including at local beauty spots and public parks/greenspace), speeding and dangerous driving, house break-ins, drug taking, dealing and wider vulnerability concerns of relatives and neighbours. Greater engagement being required with children and young people, including those who support them - such as youth workers, teachers, and sports clubs - was also highlighted.

For more information, including graphs and other insights, are available here.

We sought views that would help us shape the use of Body Worn Video (BWV) by armed policing officers when interacting with the public. We felt it was important to engage and involve individuals, communities, and our partners to gain their views and measure their confidence in how we use technology and continue to police by consent.

We received almost 9,000 responses to our survey. This illustrated the large public interest in this topic and the public’s motivation to continue to be involved in the development of Police Scotland’s policies across both geographic and demographic communities, including a notable proportion of respondents: with a disability or long-term health condition (18%); currently employed by Police Scotland (15%); and under the age of 29 (17%).

We found that:

• A large majority of respondents (73%) reported that the use of BWV would help respondents feel “much safer” (58%) or “slightly safer” (15%), a quarter reported it would make them feel “neither more or less safe”;
• Nine in ten respondents reported that BWV should be used “always” (74%) or “often” (16%);
• 78% of respondents reported that knowing interactions with the public are recorded would increase their trust and confidence in Police Scotland.

Your views have informed the decision making process as we move forward to the next stage in the delivery of BWV to our armed police officers across Scotland.

We understand that we need to understand more about this topic before BWV is rolled out more widely. Further public engagement will be undertaken before we introduce BWV in other areas of policing, including for our response officers across local policing divisions.  This engagement will involve our stakeholders, a public survey and focus groups with our diverse communities and planning for this is already underway.

In December 2019 the Scottish Government updated its Strategic Police Priorities, prompting a refresh of the Scottish Police Authority's and Police Scotland’s strategic police plan and long term strategy for policing.

The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland wanted to gather views of the communities of Scotland on our long term strategic direction.

The strategy, Policing for a safe, protected and resilient Scotland, was developed around five strategic outcomes, which describe the positive impact we are seeking for the people and communities of Scotland, as well as officers and staff:

• Threats to public safety and wellbeing are resolved by a proactive and responsive police service
• The needs of local communities are addressed through effective service delivery
• The public, communities and partners are engaged, involved and have confidence in policing
• Our people are supported through a positive working environment enabling them to serve the public
• Police Scotland is sustainable, adaptable and prepared for future challenges

Your opinions make sure that our plan fits with expectations and enables continued collaboration, and that we are able to identify any areas of the plan that require to be amended or strengthened.

We received a strong level of support for the approach set out.  This provides us with the assurance that these approaches have support and confidence from the public and partners.

The percentage of respondents who ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ were:

• Outcome 1: Keeping people safe – 80%
• Outcome 2: Communities are at the heart of policing – 76%
• Outcome 3: How we involve you – 75%
• Outcome 4: Supporting our people – 75%
• Outcome 5: Sustainable policing for the future – 70%

1,451 responses, including approximately 2455 free text responses, were received. These responses allowed us to gain a more in-depth understanding of respondents’ views. Comments were reviewed against the draft Joint Strategy for Policing and allowed us to make changes that reflected your views.

In addition to this feedback, we also considered feedback from key partners before the plan was finalised and approved by the Scottish Police Authority on 25 March 2020.

The comments received will also inform future strategic work, such as our approach to cybercrime.

You can read the final strategy here. It is also attached at the bottom of this page, alongside a summary report of the consultation and an Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment summary report.

We are grateful to all who participated and thank you to all who indicated they would like to continue to engage with us in the future.