Appendix C: Summary results of the ‘Your Police, Your Views’ Consultation

There were a total number of 1,348 responses to the survey, of which 40 were completed as paper surveys and the remainder completed online.

The following data is presented in three ways – an overall figure for all responses, a second figure showing only those who do not work in policing (those answering as residents, business owners, people working in the county and elected representatives) and a third set for those who work or volunteer for Warwickshire Police.

Q: How affordable would a Precept change be?

Figure 1. All responses on affordability

Data table for Figure 1:

Figure 2. Non-police responses on affordability

Data table for Figure 2:

Figure 3. Police responses on affordability

Data table for Figure 3:

Q: How willing would you be to paying an increase in the Police Precept?

Figure 4. All responses on willingness to pay

Data table for Figure 4:

Figure 5. Non-police responses on willingness to pay

Data table for Figure 5:

Figure 6. Police responses on willingness to pay

Data table for Figure 6:

Other key findings

People feel policing needs improvement

Most people believe policing requires some form of improvement in Warwickshire. Among those who do not work within policing, 36.7% felt that policing in Warwickshire was not good enough and many aspects need improvement, while 34.6% said that policing was generally good but could use some improvement.  A further 18.5% felt that policing was generally bad and most aspects need improvement.

Those working within Warwickshire Police were more likely to say policing was generally good (54.1%) or not good enough with many aspects needing improvement (36.8%).  Almost no respondents felt policing to be excellent with no room for improvement.

People generally feel safe in their communities

After being asked to rank how safe they feel in their communities out of 10 (1= very unsafe, 10= very safe), most people scored between 5 and 8, meaning more people view their neighbourhoods as safe than unsafe.

Figure  7: How safe do you feel in your local neighbourhood?

Data table for Figure 7

Visibility of policing continues to be a key concern

Most people do not feel that policing has enough visibility in their community.  Most non-police respondents felt that policing was rarely visible (47%) or not at all visible (29.2%).  Even among those working within policing, a majority thought policing was somewhat visible (46.2%) or rarely visible (38.1%). Very few in either category felt policing was very visible.

Many people express difficulty in contacting Warwickshire Police

More people (38.9%) felt it was very difficult or somewhat difficult to contact Warwickshire Police than those finding it very easy or somewhat easy (29.6%).  A further 20.9% rated it as neither easy nor difficult. Common themes in the comments included frustration at long wait times or an inability to get through when calling on 101, difficulties with online forms, police station front counters being closed and problems and delays when contacting specific officers for updates on their cases.

Most people contacting the police were dissatisfied with the outcome

Across all respondents who had contacted Warwickshire Police within the last 12 months, 57.9% were dissatisfied with the outcome in some way.  When asked to provide more information, the majority of comments cited factors such as:

• A perceived lack of interest from police in what they were reporting
• Long wait times on 101
• A lack of follow-up from officers or a perception that the response received was inappropriate.

Out of 396 comments received, 40 did however contain praise for the way in which their contact was handled.

Priorities for investment

A range of key priorities for investment were suggested, with respondents asked to rate whether their should be increase, decreases or freezes in investment in each.

In most categories, there was majority support for increased investment, most notably on measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, measures to reduce the number of people who commit crime time and again and on improving police performance, with more crimes detected.  The only categories where there were notably larger responses suggesting less investment was needed was for tackling hatred and misogyny and for environmental sustainability measures, though these were still substantially outweighed by the numbers wanting to see increased investment in these areas.

Priorities for officer activity

We asked respondents to rate a variety of police activities in terms of their relative importance, to help understand where extra officers could be targeted.

While there were no policing activities that were deemed to be of little importance in substantial numbers, there were a number of activity areas which were deemed of highest importance by a large majority:

• Responding quickly to emergencies, such as crimes in progress or incidents where lives are at risk;
• Tackling violent crime
• Tackling serious and organised crime, such as County Lines drugs offences, people trafficking and firearms offences
• Tackling sexual offences including rape and child sexual exploitation.

When asked where needed the greatest amount of additional policing focus was needed, the top three answers were:

1. In our town centres (68%)
2. In our rural areas (48.8%)
3. On our roads (34%)

Note: figures do not sum as multiple answers could be selected.

General comments and observations

We received a total of 461 additional comments and observations, which covered a broad range of subject areas.  Of these, 207 could be assessed as expressed a negative sentiment towards policing, 205 were neutral in tone and 49 expressed a positive sentiment.

A number of key themes emerged from the comments:

• A lack of police visibility (84 comments)
• A need for more locally-based policing (27 comments)
• That the police budget should be reduced through efficiencies (20 comments)
• More police are needed (17 comments)
• Central government should fund policing more (18 comments)

There also were a number of comments mentioning specific geographic areas where increased local policing was desired, with Southam, Atherstone and Kenilworth all being mentioned on multiple occasions.