2009/10 Crime And Safety Survey

Summary Of Main Findings

The Local Police Service

Overall, 55% of residents in the West Mercia Force area said that the police are doing a good
or excellent job in their local neighbourhoods. A further 34% believe that the police are doing a
fair job, whilst only 12% believe that the police are performing poorly.

The proportion who answered good or excellent was statistically higher in 2009 than in 2008
(55% v 47%). The most common reasons given for having a positive view of the police were
that the neighbourhood is a low crime area/residents feel safe in their neighbourhood and
that there is a good or improved police presence.

The districts with the most positive view of the job the police are doing are Central Shropshire
(59%) and Wychavon (59%). Those with the least positive view, on the other hand, were
residents of Malvern Hills (51%) and Wyre Forest (51%).

Just under a third (31%) of residents said that they know Police or Community Support Officers
who work in their local neighbourhood; a significant decrease in results since 2008 (36%).
Moreover, around a fifth (22%) of residents said that they have met or spoken to a police
officer or community support officer in their local neighbourhood during the previous 3
months. Of these residents, around a third (31%) now have a better opinion of the police,
whereas the majority (64%) have no change in their opinion of the police.

The districts where residents are most satisfied with the frequency with which they see Police
or Community Support officers on foot or cycle are Central Shropshire (33%), and Worcester
City (33%). The least satisfied are residents of Malvern Hills (19%).

In 2009 the proportion of residents disagreeing that neighbourhood police understand
community issues decreased significantly compared with 2008 (8% v 9%). So too did the
proportion disagreeing that neighbourhood police are dealing with the things that matter to
people in communities (14% v 16%). Both of these results show significant changes for the
better.

Involving Communities

Under a third (31%) of residents had heard of Partners and Communities Together (PACT) and
2% had attended an event or completed a PACT face-to-face survey or postcard. Main reasons
for not attending a PACT event or completing a survey/postcard were given as lack of
awareness (50%) and inability to take part (28%).

In 2009, residents are significantly more likely to agree that the police (a) seek people's views
about and (b) are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in their area compared with 2008 (36% v 34% agree; 40% v 36% agree, respectively). This is also the case
for the local council (29% v 27% agree; 26% v 23% agree, respectively).

Residents feel significantly more able to influence decisions in 2009 compared with 2008 (19%
v 17% agree); and more well informed about crime and disorder issues in their
neighbourhoods (21% v 16%). There is no change in the proportion of residents who agree
they are involved in decision making that affects changes in their local areas (7% v 7%).

Local Neighbourhood

The districts where most residents think their local neighbourhood has been safe during the 3
months prior to completing the survey are Malvern Hills (88%) and Wychavon (85%). The
district with the lowest proportion of residents who think their neighbourhood has been safe is
Telford and Wrekin (73%).

Amongst survey respondents, the issues in their neighbourhood that were most commonly
cited in the top three that need to be addressed first were:

• Speeding traffic (36%)
• Groups of people loitering or hanging around in public places (21%)
• Under-age drinking (19%)

These same crimes/incidents are also those that residents of West Mercia feel to be the worst
problems in their neighbourhoods. Around half (49%) of residents said that they can
remember actual times when they have felt fearful over the past 3 months about the
possibility of any of the crimes/problems specified in 6.2 happening to them in their local
neighbourhoods. Residents have felt most fearful over incidents of anti-social behaviour (29%)
and vandalism or damage to property (25%).

The proportion saying that they feel less safe in the local neighbourhood compared to 3
months ago is higher than the proportion of those saying they feel more safe (7% v 5%).

For around a fifth (19%) of residents, crime and anti-social behaviour is a problem in their local
neighbourhoods and for 45% it is considered to impact to a big or slight extent upon the
quality of day-to-day life in their neighbourhoods. The same proportion of residents believe
that crime and anti-social behaviour rates have got better as those who think they have got
worse (7% v 7%).

Experience of Crime and Reporting Crime

Around 1 in 10 residents (9%) say that they have personally been the victim of crime whilst in
their local neighbourhood, in the last 3 months. The most commonly experienced crime is
vandalism or damage to property (4.8%) followed by harassment in a public place (2.0%) and
house burglary (0.9%).

Areas where residents had the highest experience of crime in West Mercia are Wyre Forest,
Worcester City, Telford and Wrekin and Redditch.

Areas where residents have the highest fear of crime are Redditch, Wyre Forest, Bromsgrove and Worcester City.Around half of victims of crime (47%) did not report the crimes to the police. Main reasons given for not reporting crimes were:

• Police would not take it seriously/would not have been interested (46%)
• Thought it was unlikely that anyone would get caught (43%)
• Police couldn’t have done anything (35%)

The Criminal Justice System

Whilst a majority of residents (57%) are confident that the police are effective at catching
criminals, relatively few have confidence in the Crown Prosecution Service, the Courts, prisons
and the Probation Service. In particular only 11% are confident that the Probation Service is
effective at preventing criminals from re-offending and only 13% believe that prisons are
effective at rehabilitating offenders.

In general, residents in West Mercia do not have a positive view of the Criminal Justice System
(CJS). Having said this, there have been significant improvements since 2008 in the proportion
of residents who agree that the CJS as a whole treats those accused of a crime as ‘innocent
until proven guilty’ (51% v 48%), that the CJS takes into account the views of victims and
witnesses (40% v 38%), and the circumstances surrounding the crime (34% v 32%), gives
witnesses and victims the support they need (29% v 26%) and achieves the correct balance
between the rights of the offender and the victim (18% v 16%).

However, more than three fifths of residents (63%) agree that the CJS is too soft on those
accused of committing a crime.

Taking the Criminal Justice System as a whole, only a low proportion (31%) of residents are
confident that it is effective, although a higher proportion (41%) think that it is fair.