Yougov Survey - Public Confidence in Police At Record Lows But Local Tory Police Boss Thinks Otherwise

 

Standing Up for You

by Andrew D Pope, 20th March 2023

The majority of the public have no confidence or not very much confidence in the Police, new data from survey company Yougov has shown.

Yet the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones thinks the opposite. Only last week, we exclusively revealed her answers to our questions about this very topic. She said:

Donna Jones Election Leaflet May 2021

"I have not seen a dip in trust & confidence of local officers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary"

Residents have since got in touch with us to disagree with Ms Jones. They thought that her claims were laughable. Ms Jones was elected almost two years ago as PCC for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, the area for which she was the Conservative Party candidate. 

Decrease in Confidence Proved By Yougov Surveys

We asked Ms Jones these questions due to concerns raised by lots of people in Southampton, over years, about their decreasing confidence in the Police and the increasing number of media stories about the misconduct of Police.

And it is not just in Southampton. Nationally, Yougov have shown a decrease in confidence.

Confidence in the Police has dropped by 10%

From the graph, you can see that confidence in the Police has dropped in less than two years.

The proportion of people who had a lot of or fair amount of confidence has dropped by 10%.

And in the opposite direction, 10% more people had not very much or no confidence.

The Detail of the Drop in Confidence in Police

Every month, Yougov surveys a representative sample of the country's population, approximately 1,700 adults. In the 6th March 2023 data, they found that:

• The majority of the public have either no confidence (17%) or not very much confidence in the Police (37%) - giving a total for the majority of 54% of people
  
• the lowest proportion of the people surveyed since July 2019 had a fair amount of confidence (34%) 
• the proportion of people with a lot of confidence in the Police was 4%
• 8% of people did not know when asked.
  

When Ms Jones was elected in May 2021, the respective figures were:

• 10% and 34% have no or not very confidence - giving a total of 44% then versus 54% now
  
• 43% had fair confidence - versus 34% now
  
• 5% had a lot of confidence - little change
  
• 10% of people did not know - little change
  

So during Ms Jones' reign over two years, confidence in the Police has decreased significantly.

So unless Ms Jones has evidence that the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight think differently to the rest of the country, her assertion is wrong. We have asked Ms Jones for evidence to support her claim.

EDIT: 21st March 2023 Updated with graph to make the changes clearer.

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