Your Police 2020-2021

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.