Top police officers concerned as confidence in service falls

Figures released by the British Crime Survey covering the period between March and June this year, show that overall satisfaction has fallen almost four percentage points in three months.

The survey, which is carried out on behalf of the Home Office, questions a sample of people from across the country on how they feel about crime levels in their community and about how their police service is responding.

As part of the process, people in South Yorkshire are questioned in face-to-face interviews about their experiences and are asked the over-arching question: "Taking everything into account, how good a job do you think police in this area are doing?"

In the first quarter of the year, 56.5 per cent of people told researchers that officers in the county were doing a "good or excellent job", but by the end of the second quarter, that figure had fallen to 52.6 per cent.

The South Yorkshire force had been set a target by the Home Office to achieve a 57 per cent satisfaction rating, and in a report on the figures, assistant chief constable Andy Holt admits the current position is "of concern to the force".

Police services across the country are generally judged against a group of other similar forces, and the recent fall in satisfaction levels means that South Yorkshire is falling behind those which make up its "most similar" group.

According to Mr Holt's report, South Yorkshire Police has fallen from third to fifth on satisfaction ratings in its eight-strong group of forces, which includes Northumbria, Lancashire, Humberside and Nottinghamshire.

It is the only force in its group to suffer a "substantial drop" in the satisfaction indicator and as a result of the decrease has seen its position fall from 21st to 33rd out of the total of 43 police services in England and Wales.

Mr Holt's report will be considered next Tuesday as part of a meeting of the South Yorkshire Police Authority, which oversees the work and strategic direction of South Yorkshire Police and its senior officers.

It is expected that the assistant chief constable will tell members of the authority that work is ongoing to improve confidence and satisfaction ratings among the public and restore its position in the national league table.

In his report Mr Holt says: "There has been a great deal of effort across the force to improve satisfaction and in particular issues around follow-up.

"Processes around our response to incidents and the contact we have with victims have been thoroughly scrutinised and changed to concentrate on their needs.

"Analysis has shown that these efforts have been successful in moving victims from the 'fairly satisfied' to 'very satisfied' categories while not having a great impact on those who are dissatisfied with our service.

"The key aspects of service we need to concentrate on to improve overall satisfaction are around giving practical help and updating victims without them having to ask."

Mr Holt will tell the authority that senior officers will be "closely monitoring the issue" when they visit officers on the ground during the next few months.

The British Crime Survey figures also show a slight drop in public opinion in other areas, including under the heading "police understand the issues that affect this community".

Under that criteria, the South Yorkshire force stands at sixth in its group of eight most similar forces and its national position has fallen from 19th in the first quarter of the year, to 31st at the end of June.

Mr Holt says in his report that the force will continue to use its own survey, known as Your Voice Counts, in a bid to understand how to improve its position.