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| Southampton People's Decreased Trust in Police 2021 to 2023 |
UPDATE (9th June 2023)
"I can't recall a time when the relationship between the police and the public was more strained than it is now," Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke has told BBC News.
Under the headline
"Trust in police hanging by a thread, inspectorate says"
the Inspector said that:
"Time is running out if the police and the government are to restore public trust in policing".
The credibility of Donna Jones, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), is also hanging by a thread, given what she has told Southampton Independents:
"I have not seen a dip in trust & confidence of local officers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary"
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| Donna Jones Election Leaflet May 2021 |
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by Andrew D Pope, 12th May 2023
Now that the local elections are over and the Conservatives have received another beating, we can reveal more facts about the public's views of the Police and the desperate tactics employed by PR people to hide the truth.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones - for brevity's sake let's just use "PCC" - has denied when questioned by us that there is a trust and confidence problem in our local Police.
This is despite people here in Southampton, in Hampshire and nationally telling survey after survey that they have decreased trust and confidence in the Police. This is not a new thing, it is a long-term trend. Yet Ms Jones and her staff want you to think otherwise.
Their false PR and spin is despite the view of the Police sinking further in the public eye following the false arrests made of anti-Monarchist protesters and Monarchy supporters alike.
When the PCC's public relations officers responded to questions about this topic, they have resorted to very dubious tactics.
But now the Head of Communications of the Office of the PCC has made claims that are possibly even more laughable and lacking credibility than those made by their employer, Ms Jones the PCC.
Under pressure to justify the untruths written by the PCC, the officer has pointed us to Yougov surveys specific to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The officer has laughably pointed to an increase in trust - not over the period of time that Ms Jones has been PCC - to now since May 2021, but during just two months in late 2022 when there was a brief and very small uptick in trust.
As you can see from the graph above, the overall trend from 2021 to 2023 is a marked decrease.
Be in no doubt that the overall trend is a decrease. The Yougov statistics prove it. And what residents have told us backs it up.
People have decreased trust in the Police over the time that Donna Jones has been the PCC.This is why we asked Ms Jones about it, but it seems that Ms Jones is in denial.
We wonder what the Deputy PCC thinks about this. Former Portsmouth Tory Councillor Terry Norton was very outspoken when he was a councillor, including accusing other councillors of being hypocrites (e.g. Full Council on 9th November 2021, shortly before Norton was appointed and announced that he would step down as a councillor).
Perhaps he will have something to say about Ms Jones' claims and the desperate tactics of her PR staff to defend her?
Mr Norton was appointed as a colleague of Ms Jones. As people elsewhere in England have discovered to their shock and annoyance, there is no proper procedure for appointing Deputy PCCs.
It has tended to mean mates from the same political party being appointed, and it appears that Mr Norton's elevation to this publicly-funded role was no different to elsewhere.
Competence is not relevant. The public being served is not relevant. What matters to party politicians like Norton and Jones is access to public money and spending it in the wrong ways, all to assuage their egos and their party, instead of what they are supposed to do, which is public service.
We will continue to bring the truth, instead of PR spin by officers who are paid for by public money, and the guff spouted by councillors or other elected representatives.
