Surveying Lancashire: Expectations and experiences of Lancashire Constabulary and its associated partners

Abstract

Key Findings
1) Contrary to previous literature, contact(s) with the police was shown to have a positive
effect and was useful in bolstering confidence in the Lancashire Constabulary.
2) The majority of the respondents were confident and satisfied with the Lancashire
Constabulary in their local areas.
3) The respondents reported worries over funding and how this was affecting the service
that Lancashire Constabulary was providing.
4) The respondents had strong views on physical visibility of Police presence: 74.1%
valued foot patrols and 67.2% valued police vehicle patrols. Subsequently, 75.2%
wanted an increase in foot patrols and 61.4% wanted an increase in vehicle patrols.
5) When asked to prioritise a range of policing issues the public chose violent crime
(67.3%), gun/knife crime (58.1%) and sexual crime (55.3%) as very important. When
asked to prioritise an individual issue the most rated were theft (17.8%), anti-social
behaviour (17.2%), violent crime (14.7%) and drugs (14.2%).
6) A great majority of people felt safe during the day and in their own homes. Less felt
safe in their local area and even less so in the night and in their town centre.
o Age was found to be associated with feelings of vulnerability, with the
exception of those who reported living in secure homes who reported the
highest levels of safety.
o Males felt significantly safer than females at night, in their own home, and in
their local area.
7) The decreased feeling of safety in the above mentioned areas has been exacerbated
by the reduction in officer numbers, with 76 participants explicitly stating how the
reduction in police presence has made them feel more vulnerable than they were
before.
8) There was also a small amount of mutual fear between different demographics:
Muslims reported fearing Islamophobia from others, some white British respondents
feared 'Asian youths' and 'foreign men', females fearing males in the night time,
students fearing locals in pubs and bars and the locals fearing 'packs of students'.
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9) 71.1% of participants reported having contact with the Lancashire Constabulary within
the past 12 months. The majority found it easy to get in touch. However, 20
participants complained about the 101 number, stating that their trouble dissuaded
them from using the 101 service to provide information to the Lancashire
Constabulary in the future.
10)The majority of the participants reported that they would prefer to use contact with
local officers (34.0%), telephoning the police (27.5%), and using the internet (27.1%)
to keep in touch in the future.
11) Women are more likely than men to prefer social media as a means of communicating
with the Lancashire Constabulary in the future, whilst men are more likely than
women to prefer email.
12) Older people are more likely to value police presence in the form of viewing online
only support and assisted watch schemes
13) Contrary to the fundamental policing style and the belief and resourcing model of
most forces, participants placed more importance on receiving information from the
police (on local crime and their neighbourhood team) than on having their say in the
way their local area and Lancashire is policed.

Key Recommendations
1) Generally, Lancashire Constabulary should focus more on information out to the
public and visibility in order to provide reassurance and promote community
networks.
2) Becoming more transparent about the budget, perhaps through publishing financial
reports and/or budget plans would reassure the public that the budget is being
effectively managed.
3) Review the amount of foot patrols available with a view to increasing so as to meet
the public demand for increased physical visibility.
4) When the Lancashire Constabulary aim to form policing priorities, it would be useful
to determine the scope of the audience to reflect the differences within the
demographics. Additional postcode analysis would help with this;
4.1) When addressing countywide initiatives, an objective approach should be
taken (i.e., crime statistics)
4.2) When addressing neighbourhood team/local policing concerns, the
subjective priorities of locals should be prioritised as they are more specific
and personal concerns.
5) Increase opportunities for people to volunteer with the Lancashire Constabulary and
other agencies. Also ensure information about existing volunteer work is well
marketed and disseminated. Use people from local areas with local knowledge to feed
information back into their local areas (i.e., getting a volunteer to update a social
media page/answer the telephone for reports in their own local area). This would
build rapport, increase satisfaction and encourage more information in as responses
could be addressed with local knowledge.
6) Address issues with the 101 number, ensuring that call waiting time is not too long
and that the caller is likely to have knowledge of their local area. Possibility of having
call takers for certain areas, allowing the call taker to have local knowledge and can
relate to the person who is passing information to the police or reporting an incident.
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7) Continue developing virtual visibility for all demographics. However, consider
marketing and targeting social media towards a younger demographic and a female
demographic, and emails towards a male demographic.
8) Focus more on information out, as the participants reported this as more important.
Better marketing and promotion of the ‘In the know’ service would address the 537
participants’ wishes for more information and local crime statistics.
9) Provide better contact information for local officers/neighbourhood teams and local
police stations. Also provide better information on when situations “aren’t police
matters” and provide information on which agency is responsible and how to get in
touch with them.