Police, crime & community safety market research

Police forces, and all the interrelated organisations responsible for dealing with crime and maintaining community safety, are under ever-increasing scrutiny in the UK and across the world. Accountability is essential, and organisations across Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) need robust and clear evidence of the effectiveness of their policies and activities, and insight into how and where services need to improve or require increased investment.

Within the DJS Research public sector team, we have specific, extensive experience in the areas of policing, crime and community safety. As well as working directly with police forces, we work with organisations across the CSP framework, including councils and combined authorities, and health partnerships. We work with areas where Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are currently responsible for local policing decisions and accountability, and combined authorities like Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire where these responsibilities sit with Deputy Mayors.    

The depth of our work in this area has underlined the importance of understanding personal experiences of crime and feelings of public safety, and we recognise that such projects must be both planned and executed with great care. In recent years, we’ve conducted a number of projects which have focused entirely on these fundamentals of public experience and safety. Examples include our continuous work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) on their large-scale tracker – the Policing and Community Safety survey (PCS). This survey captures the views of 13,000 residents of Greater Manchester each year and is demographically representative of the ten districts which make up the area. Results are shared with over 100 stakeholders across GMCA, GMP and other partners via a portal. 

Other examples of our experience in this field and organisations we have worked with include:

• A mixed mode research project for a police force, exploring the experiences and perceptions of safety amongst women and girls to inform the development of the force’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) framework: This involved a quantitative survey and qualitative research consisting of one-to-one depth interviews with victims of crime. Our researchers are trained to manage interviews on sensitive and emotive content to ensure the best experience for both the respondent and our team members.
• Quantitative tracking research with those who have experienced crime: This project spanned different severities of crime, from victims of theft to experiences of physical assault, and followed strict measures adhering to the Victims’ Code of Practice (VCOP) framework.
• In-street quantitative research to assess the impact of local police presence: Designed to understand the impact of police visibility on public perceptions of safety, this activity was concentrated in areas considered to have a higher risk of serious violence.
• ‘Deep dives’ into specific demographic groups: Our work has included specific projects with students/young people, and individuals with disabilities to understand key drivers for satisfaction with the police and any notable differences amongst disability types.

Feelings and attitudes towards public safety can also be measured successfully within residents’ surveys, particularly when they are used to track resident sentiment over time. Organisations for whom we have tracked community safety sentiment include Lambeth Council, Croydon Council and Leicester City Council. We benchmark results against equivalent data from Local Government Association (LGA) polling to provide comparison and to generate a greater depth of insight.

It is crucial that all parts of society are included and heard within research across the fields of policing, crime and community safety. As well as delivering conventional research methodologies, we recognise the need to be fully inclusive and craft bespoke mixed mode solutions to ensure respondent samples are fully representative. Our in-house online panel, Different Perspectives, provides a route to engage over 9,000 people nationally who are currently facing vulnerable circumstances, including financial hardship and social and economic difficulties. Our online panels are just one of the many ways we can reach voices which are often underrepresented to ensure they have equal consideration.  

To find out more about our public sector expertise and discuss how we can provide the actionable insight you need to meet your specific objectives, contact our team today.