NCJ Number
140527
Date Published
1992
Length
53 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the results of a series of surveys conducted in Great Britain during 1991-92 to determine public attitudes toward the police in the course of a new police-community relations effort entitled "Quality of Service Initiative."
Abstract
The survey questions were included at 3-month intervals over 9 months with an "Omnibus" survey. The questions addressed broad measures of public satisfaction with police performance, the amount of contact the public has with the police, and their views about these encounters. An ethnic "booster" sample was included in each sweep of the survey, so that the needs and expectations of various ethnic groups could be compared. Survey findings indicate that approximately 75 percent of the sample consistently rated the police as doing a "fairly good" or "very good" job; 20-25 percent said "very good." Only 15 percent said the police do a "poor" job. Nine out of 10 people whose last contact with the police had been very satisfactory rated the police as doing a very or fairly good job. Of those who said they were very dissatisfied with the police handling of their most recent contact with them, half indicated the police do a fairly or very poor job. Although 76 percent of white respondents felt the police do a very or fairly good job, the figure drops to 62 percent for Asians and 52 percent for Afro-Caribbean respondents. 25 tables, 5 references, and appended survey questions