Using Research for Change: Knowing what influences confidence

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Using Research for Change Knowing what
influences confidence

• Professor Betsy Stanko
• Commander Rod Jarman
• Metropolitan Police Service

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MPS Corporate Model of Confidence
Effectiveness in crime prevention and protection
Confidence in Policing

• Community Commitment/
• Engagement

Treatment
Alleviating Local ASB
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What influences confidence in local policing?

• Taking everything into account how good a job do
  you think the police IN THIS AREA/IN LONDON are
  doing?
• Source of performance data MPS Public Attitude
  Survey, 5000 resident Londoners per quarter 3 ½
  years of trend data available

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What influences each constituent contribution to
confidence in local policing?
Tackle drugs
Tackle drugs
Police major events in London
Tackle gun crime
Effectiveness in crime prevention and protection
Prevents terrorism
Visible presence
Responds to emergencies promptly
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What influences each constituent contribution to
confidence in local policing?
Understand the issues that affect the community
Tackle drugs
Dealing with the issues that affect the community
Community commitment/ engagement
Reliability to be there you are needed
Deal with minor crimes
Provide information about local policing
activities
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What influences each constituent contribution to
confidence in local policing?
Treat people with respect
Treatment
Treat everyone fairly
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What influences each constituent contribution to
confidence in local policing?
Dealing with issues linked with teenagers
hanging around
Alleviating Local ASB
Dealing with issues such as vandalism, graffiti
and rubbish
Dealing with issues linked with drunk and rowdy
behaviour
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What community policing and police do matters
and influences locally

• Boroughs which identify and action the local
  peoples concerns see a greater increase in local
  confidence.
• Problem identification by borough residents can
  be a positive driver of local confidence if
  police officers are seen to be dealing with local
  problems.

9

What community policing and police do matters
and influences locally

• Mainstreaming Safer Neighbourhoods into the
  complexity of the delivery of all policing
  services is key to improving local confidence.
• Providing the right information, to the right
  people in the right way, LOCALLY is essential.
• Remember, any contact with the police can still
  be a negative driver of confidence in some
  boroughs.
• However, positive contact can have a positive
  effect on confidence.

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What key themes are emerging around confidence
from our 4 year ongoing study of neighbourhood
policing?
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Four key elements for improving peoples
experience of local policing

• Four years of SN research (qualitative
  research in conjunction with survey analysis) can
  direct police activity toward desired outcome
  confidence. Four key delivery levers
• Visibility (including seen to be engaging)
• Community Engagement (mixed menu of talking to
  people in different settings)
• Problem Solving (noticing that problems shift or
  change)
• Information Provision (sharing local knowledge
  about problems and problem solving through direct
  contact)

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1 Visibility - What is it that people see ?

• High levels of visibility are necessary to boost
  confidence, but
• Foot patrol alone is not likely to lead to
  substantial changes in public confidence.
• People also see what police are doing where
  they walk, what they do and how they are seen to
  engage
• People need to perceive a police presence that is
  at ease with engaging and reassuring and treats
  people fairly
• People need to perceive the police as an
  accessible resource for them

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2 Engagement that is diverse and eclectic, yet
targeted about problems

• Wards are not homogenous areas and people who
  live side by side have different attitudes toward
  the police and policing
• So we need to be creative about how to
  effectively capture local understanding of areas,
  problems and policing
• But We also know from our research that people
  do agree on what the most serious problems are
  locally
• And that some people are more likely to see
  problems than others (younger people, those in
  employment, those whose immediate local area is
  in poor condition, victims of crime)
• This means that some people (e.g. victims) are
  good starting points for finding out where and
  what local problems are.

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3 Problem Solving is crucial to supporting the
business of Neighbourhood Policing

• Our MPS research tells us that local problems are
  not static. The key aim is for people to know
  that police and partners are minimising harm
  locally.
• This links to anti-social behaviour (ASB) across
  London the top two local priorities are ASB
  related
• Problem-solving is not yet robustly developed and
  is the weakest area in neighbourhood policing.

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4 Keeping people informed about local policing

• People who feel very well informed feel more
  confident in their local police and are more
  likely to say that crime and ASB are improving
  locally.
• Information and communication by the police is
  key to telling people about the kinds of problems
  in their area and what the police are doing about
  them.
• Information can promote reassurance people want
  to know the police are an accessible resource for
  them.
• Local information is a form of direct contact.
  MPS research suggests that an MPS newsletter is
  the most preferred form of finding out about
  local policing and can quickly have an impact on
  engagement opportunities and public perceptions.

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Now to the challenging part

• Performance managing change
• ..over to Commander Rod Jarman

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The Operational Perspective
This is all very nice but. ..Where are the
Sanction Detections? ..How many calls do they
respond to? ..Why dont they do their share
in Custody On aid In the front
counter
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Managing Delivery
Links with NIM Links with Partnership
Tasking Holding to Account for the Right
Things Problem Profiles, Priorities, Panels and
KINs
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Improving Performance
Linking Research to Activity Learning from Good
Practice Sharing Practice Partners
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More informationResearch_at_met.police.ukSRAU17
th Floor EastEmpress State BuildingEmpress
Approach, Lillie RoadLondon SW6 1TR