Public confidence and engagement
We undertake regular surveys to assess the public's perceptions of the police, as well as their confidence in the police complaints system and our organisation.
We also seek regular feedback from our stakeholders to understand what is working well and where improvement may be needed. This feedback helps shape and inform our wider work to influence changes in policing, ensure accountability and encourage best practice and high standards of service. The surveys have been an important tool for measuring our progress.
Public Perceptions Tracker
We carry out surveys with members of the public to ask their view of us as an organisation and about the police complaints system. We currently work with Yonder, an independent research organisation, to carry out these surveys.
The data collected allows us to track levels of public confidence and provides a detailed insight into the public’s confidence in the police complaints system. The results from the survey help us to assess the impact our work is having. We also use the data to support our policy, engagement and communications work.
Previous public confidence surveys are available on the National Archives site.
Some of the key findings for 2023/24 include:
- Awareness of the IOPC has been higher over the past year than previously, with over two thirds having heard of the organisation. Despite this increase, the majority still don’t know enough about the IOPC to say anything about what it does.
- Confidence in the IOPC has increased very slightly with 40% of respondents confident that the IOPC does a good job.
- The context of policing remains challenging. News stories from the past few years such as the murder of Sarah Everard and police officers committing acts of sexual assault have led to deep rooted damage to the police’s reputation.
- The public thinks the IOPC can have a positive impact on policing with just over half saying it will help improve policing by identifying ways the police can learn from the IOPC’s work.
The Public Perceptions Tracker runs on a regular basis. We ask core questions that cover the following topics:
- awareness of the IOPC
- people’s perception of our independence
- how likely people are to make a complaint about the police
- their views about how the police deal with complaints
Additional questions that have been asked include:
- people’s likelihood to report racial discrimination to the police
- their likelihood to escalate the matter by making a complaint to an independent body or the force involved if dissatisfied with the police response
- perceived importance of key qualities in a police oversight body