Downward trend in perception of police, according to ONS survey
There has been a general downward trend in the rating of the local police over the past nine years, according to latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
Statistics from the Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2025 showed that while around half of all respondents reported that their local police were doing a good or excellent job (49 per cent), this is down from 62 per cent a decade ago.
Around two-thirds of respondents reported that they had confidence in the local police (67 per cent). While this was a slight increase compared with the previous year (65 per cent), it was down from more than three-quarters (76 per cent) ten years ago.
Visibility of officers has also fallen. Around one in nine respondents reported seeing police officers or police community support officers on foot patrol in their local area once a week or more (11 per cent). This has decreased from around three in ten in the year ending March 2015 survey (29 per cent), and from around four in ten at its peak in the year ending March 2011 (39 per cent)
While respondents who had been a victim of crime in the past 12 months and reported it to the police were satisfied with the response in around half of crime incidents (51 per cent); this was down by almost 20 per cent compared with a decade ago (70 per cent).
Around half of all respondents reported that they were confident that the criminal justice system as a whole was effective (48 per cent); a decrease compared with its peak in the year ending March 2016 survey (54 per cent).