Safer London Panel – report on first survey

Report: 10
Date: 3 February 2005
By: Clerk

Summary

This report highlights the major findings of the first Panel survey.

A. Recommendation

That

1. the MPS report to the next meeting of the Community Engagement Committee on the steps they are taking to:
   • reduce the time which visitors to police stations have to wait before being attended to;
   • correct public misapprehensions about incidents that are “not worth reporting to the police”, especially those where discrimination is involved;
   • be more responsive to the policing priorities of local people.
2. MPA officers be instructed to analyse the survey data in more detail with reference to the above issues; and
3. the Safer London Panel be made available for research use by other members of the GLA family and by other public sector bodies, at cost and subject to the operational needs of the MPA.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The Safer London Panel is the latest addition to the MPA’s armoury of community engagement and consultation techniques. It complements the formal scrutiny processes and the CPCGs on the one hand, and initiatives such as the MPS Public Attitude Survey on the other. The report of the survey contractors, OPM, is attached at Appendix 1.

2. The survey which is the subject of this report is the first large scale use of the Safer London Panel. Members will recall the smaller scale workshop with Panellists last summer which considered priorities for policing.

3. The ability to operate on different scales in this way is one of the benefits of a standing Panel, and will be further exploited over the coming months. There is for example the potential to bring together groups of Panellists who have expressed a particular view, or reported a particular experience, for more in-depth investigation.

4. There is also the potential to track changes in opinions or levels of knowledge over time, which can be useful for monitoring communications campaigns for example.

5. The first full scale survey was commissioned by MPA from the Office of Public Management (the contractors appointed to run the Safer London Panel) and a representative of OPM will attend the Committee meeting to answer methodological questions.

6. The size and the composition of the Safer London Panel were designed to permit more detailed analysis than is common with attitude surveys. The inclusion of questions about faith and sexual orientation is comparatively unusual, but means that the outputs of this and future Panel activities can be analysed along these important diversity dimensions as well as the more usual ones of gender, age and disability.

7. MPA officers will investigate whether all the major findings apply equally across the board, or whether there are particular sections of the community that are differentially affected by certain aspects of policing in the capital. The findings of the further analysis will then be used for further consultation with MPS colleagues at both policy and front line levels.

8. Surprisingly perhaps, the Safer London Panel seems to be the only research instrument of its kind currently in operation in London. Its potential for research has not been lost on the MPS, who are keen to use it for their own purposes. The GLA is also interested, as is a Unit at the Home Office – this is before any widespread publicity. The utilisation of the Safer London Panel by other bodies will serve the MPA’s priority of strengthening joint working with other functional bodies.

9. Adding a few extra questions to a planned survey is easily done, and the benefits to both MPA and a wider audience are potentially large. Nonetheless, there is a cost associated with every survey question and it is recommended that a charge, at cost, be made for external use of the Panel.

Headlines from the interim report

10. Members will draw their own conclusions from the OPM report, but they may consider the following findings to be of particular importance, not least in the context of Citizen Focused policing:

• most people wishing to visit a police station in person find it easy or convenient to do so. Although more and more people are using the telephone or the internet to report, personal visitors also have a right to expect high standards of service;
  • in particular, satisfaction with the way in which visitors to police stations are treated is generally high, but there is some cause for concern about the speed with which they are seen.
• most of the (relatively small number of) panellists who have helped the police with their enquiries on crime or anti social behaviour during the last 12 months were satisfied with the way they were treated
• there appears to be a serious issue of under-reporting of crimes and episodes of anti social behaviour, especially in relation to incidents of discrimination or abuse. Under-reporting is linked to a public perception that there are certain incidents that are not worth reporting. This has profound implications for the concept of Citizen Focused policing. The Panel finding suggests that successful implementation of Citizen Focused policing will lead to an increase in the reporting of so-called “minor” crimes and incidents of Anti Social Behaviour
• in terms of governance, panellists take a joined-up view of the responsibility for preventing crime and making people feel safe. Most of them see this as being a shared responsibility between the police, government both local and national, schools, individuals and – to a lesser extent – businesses. This finding reinforces the MPA’s own commitment to partnership working
• there are indications that the MPS at the local level is failing to respond to the policing priorities of local people. While there have been indications from other quarters that this is happening this finding from the Safer London Panel adds weight to those indications and should serve to raise them up the MPA’s agenda
• the panellists as a whole represent a willing but as yet largely untapped resource for community engagement in policing practice and issues at the local, borough and London wide levels. There is potential for recruiting fresh blood to the formal consultation structures such as the Safer Neighbourhood Panels, CPCGs and Community Safety Boards. These possibilities will be explored over the coming months.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The Safer London Panel is specifically designed to reflect the diverse nature of London’s communities. The demographic make up of the respondents to the first survey (see Appendix 1 to the OPM report) shows that it has succeeded in capturing this diversity along a number of key dimensions. Further analysis is planned to investigate whether all the major findings apply equally across the board, or whether there are particular sections of the community that have significantly different responses to the mainstream.

D. Financial implications

There are no direct financial implications of this report.

E. Background papers

• OPM: Safer London Panel – First Panel Survey Report (attached)

F. Contact details

Report author: John May, MPA

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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