Your Police 2024-2025

In April 2024, Police Scotland continued with our local policing survey to gather views from Scotland’s diverse communities.

Your Police 2024-2025 remained open throughout the year and helped us understand people’s opinions of policing in their local area, as well as tell us about any concerns regarding their area which was affecting their safety and wellbeing.

Your feedback via the survey has helped us ensure that our policing services in your community remained relevant and accessible.

In total, we received 16,666 responses over 12 months, including over 50,000 free-text responses. There were 6,000 responses received in July 2024 – highlighting the continued dedication of local policing divisions in listening to the communities they serve.

These responses are received by people choosing to take part and inviting a broad range of people from throughout Scotland and our communities have done so. We cannot strictly control sampling, as individuals could potentially complete the survey multiple times and in some cases, this can lead to findings skewed towards the views of those motivated to respond to the survey. However, we know through benchmarking that this is a strong and reliable approach. We want to ensure that anyone, anywhere in Scotland, can provide their feedback about policing and engage with us in a continuous conversation about policing in their local area.

Our statistical analysis shows that the sample is broadly characteristic of the population, particularly by geographic area, region and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). With the level of responses we have gathered so far, we are able to evidence statistically significant differences and similarities between groups with a very high degree of confidence that this is accurate.

The average public confidence level for the period April 2024 – March 2025 was 38%. This includes people who ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that they have confidence in local police. Confidence levels among organisations who responded to Your Police (125 organisations) averaged 34%. We know public confidence in local policing can fluctuate. Within the benchmarked YouGov monthly tracker, public confidence in Scottish policing for the same time period is 46%, higher than the rest of the UK by 6% percentage points.

We learned that things which effect public confidence include police visibility and accessibility, community engagement and the values and behaviours of our officers and staff. Public confidence exists across all of our 13 local policing divisions.

Policing in your local area

More than three quarters of the people who responded to Your Police told us that they feel safe in their local areas – an average of 80% of people said they felt safe, and this has remained high over the past year. However, we know that there are people who feel less safe for a variety of reasons and we are working to take action based on your feedback.

• 63% of respondents told us that police are friendly and approachable;
• 32% of respondents said that the police listen to the concerns of local people; and,
• 23% said the police deal with local issues.

Many respondents said they ‘don’t know’ when asked about these measures. We are now working within our governance, tasking and performance structures, and through our Policing Together programme, to enhance and expand our engagement within Scotland’s diverse communities.

Concern about crime

38% of people told us their concern about crime had remained the same while 23% said their concern had increased a lot, and 29% said their concern has raised a little. Only 3% said it had decreased. We know that people who were recent victims or witnesses of crime and those who live in areas most affected by poverty have more concern about crime.

Generally, concerns have included: anti-social behaviour, speeding and dangerous driving, concern of house break-ins, substance abuse and drug dealing and wider vulnerability concerns around the local area.

On what matters most to the public (from open-ended responses), constant themes included: visibility (a local presence), accessibility (to local police and public counters) communicating and engaging with the public, and understanding the needs of our diverse communities.

Your Police continues to be the largest local policing survey of its kind in the UK. Responses have been reviewed regularly by senior police officers and have helped us act quickly in relation to emerging issues; helping shape our approaches to operational policing across Scotland.

We have compared our data with other national public surveys to ensure that Your Police continues to provide robust insights to support effective policing in communities throughout Scotland.

Five things we have done with your feedback

• Used your feedback to inform work being undertaken within the service to improve the visibility and availability of local police officers for community policing activities.
• Continued to update our local partners on a regular basis, through local police scrutiny boards in each local authority area – using the data to design an appropriate policing response for local needs.
• Developed partnerships across Scotland, such as developing a joint report with Young Scot, combining current and past research and engagement with young people, providing insights into what matters most to young people, their experiences of crime and community safety.
• Used your feedback to support change projects, such as our Proportionate Response to Crime approach.
• Worked with our partners to continue to embed more participatory approaches so that we can work together within and with communities to solve issues, such as a deliberative Citizens’ Panel.

We are grateful to all who participated in Your Police during 2024-25. Our Research and Insight team continue to review every response in detail and provide detailed reporting to senior management and the Scottish Police Authority (the body which helps ensure an effective and high-quality service).

We are enhancing our local and national approaches to community engagement and involving more people in more decisions about their police service in new ways. More information is in our projects section.

Further information: Any clarifications or questions about this update can be made by contacting the Research and Insight team:

InsightEngagement@scotland.police.uk