Your Police 2025-2026

In 2025-26, Police Scotland continued our local policing survey to ensure people across Scotland could share their views and help shape how policing is delivered in their communities.

Your Police 2025-2026 remained open throughout the year, helping us understand people’s perceptions and expectations of policing in their local area, alongside any concerns affecting their sense of safety.  

Your feedback ensures that policing remains responsive, visible and grounded in what matters to you and the communities we serve.

Over the past year, we have continued to receive thousands of responses, 18,229 from across Scotland, including over 55,000 free-text responses. There were over 7,000 responses received in September 2025 alone, highlighting the continued dedication of local policing divisions in listening to the communities they serve.

As a voluntary survey, responses reflect those who choose to take part. While this means findings may be influenced by those most motivated to respond, it ensures that anyone, anywhere in Scotland, can share their views.  

Our analysis shows that the sample is broadly characteristic of the population, particularly by geographic area, region and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). The volume of responses allows us to identify meaningful differences and patterns between and within groups, with a high degree of confidence.  

The average public confidence level for the period April 2025 – March 2026 was 36%. This includes people who ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that they have confidence in local police. Confidence levels among organisations who responded to Your Police (118 organisations) averaged 42%. 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 47%, higher than the rest of the UK by 5% percentage points.

Public confidence in local policing continues to be shaped by three key drivers:

• Visibility of policing in communities
• Quality community engagement
• Values and behaviours of officers and staff.

Public confidence is present across all 13 local policing divisions, though we know it can fluctuate over time and across different groups. 

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 79% 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.

• 61% of respondents told us that police are friendly and approachable;
• 23% of respondents said that the police listen to the concerns of local people;
• 19% said the police deal with local issues;
• 14% said they felt well informed about local police activities;
• 71% say they have respect for their local police, and;
• 28% think their local police are doing a good job in the local area

Many respondents said they ‘don’t know’ or ‘neither agree nor disagree’ when asked about these measures. We are continuing to work 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

36% 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 increased 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, including drug dealing and substance use, speeding and dangerous driving, including E-bikes/E-Scooters, and wider vulnerability concerns around the local area, including youth activity and neighbourhood disruption. These were linked to concerns around a lack of visible and proactive policing tackling these concerns.  

On what matters most to the public (from open-ended responses), a consistent theme was the importance of more visible and proactive local policing. This includes stronger day-to-day engagement of familiar officers in communities, a more noticeable police presence in public spaces, and targeted patrols in places where you’ve told us are known to have problems. There was a clear sense that people want policing that helps prevent crime before it has happened.

People want policing to feel more connected to the communities it serves. That means being accessible, listening to local concerns and showing an understanding of the issues affecting different places and different groups of people.

Many responses also pointed to the importance of communicating everyday policing activity more clearly. People want to see the routine work that is relevant to their area, local problem solving and day-to-day activity already happening.

Across all of this, how policing is delivered matters. People expect officers and staff to act with fairness, respect and professionalism, and to recognise that different communities experience safety and policing in different ways.

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

• We’ve used your feedback to support the introduction of an enhanced community policing model, first with a test of change in Forth Valley and now launched in Tayside and Fife Divisions with more to launch in 2026. Insights from Your Police are part of the evidence used to understand early impact and will help inform how the approach is refined and rolled out more widely across Scotland.
• We continue to update our local partners on a regular basis, through local police scrutiny boards in each local authority area and our internal regional management boards – using the data to design an appropriate policing response for local needs.
• We’ve taken your feedback to inform the development of our Annual Police Plan, supporting our statutory requirement to align policing objectives with community needs, including strengthening our approach to engagement and public contact.
• We have established a Youth Engagement team to support local policing divisions in responding to issues affecting children and young people, helping ensure policing approaches are appropriate, informed and responsive to their needs.
• We have used your insights to analyse patterns in public confidence and perceptions across communities, helping us better understand how views of policing vary. We share these insights with our Policing Together programme to strengthen our approach to engagement, ensuring it is evidence based, culturally intelligent and informed by lived experience, improving how we connect with communities. 

We are grateful to all who participated in Your Police during 2025-26. Your feedback has enriched our understanding of public perceptions and expectations of policing in Scotland. This has enabled the Research and Insight team to develop enhanced analytical tools, strengthening how we analyse and report what you tell us. We continue to review every response in detail and provide regular 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