The role of police authorities in public engagement rdsolr 3703

This online report presents overall findings from research on police authorities and their role in consulting and engaging with the public. It also presents a summary of public views on engagement, police accountability and decision-making. RDS undertook a three stage research project involving a telephone survey of police authorities, focus groups with members of the public and case studies of six authorities.

Results indicated that police authorities, their role and existing mechanisms for engagement are not well recognised by the public; but that the public felt that they should have better information about, and involvement in, the way they are policed. Police authorities have made progress towards diversifying their methods and adopting a strategic approach to public engagement, but this has been variable both between and within authorities. Successful engagement of ‘hard-to-hear’ groups was also variable and generally unstructured. Limited evidence was found of engagement by case study authorities having an impact on policing plans and some local quality of service issues. It was often difficult, though, to assess the impact of engagement; case study authorities did not generally monitor or communicate the impact of consultation clearly. Various barriers to successful engagement were identified, including ‘consultation overload’ and lack of resources.

The research indicated that certain barriers could often be overcome by multi-agency working which, in general, case study respondents were in favour of. The report lists several recommendations for future policy and practice