Shock poll reveals Brits “crisis of confidence” in police turning up

• Seven in ten older people not confident police will turn up if their home was burgled

• Just one in ten are very confident the police would turn up and investigate a burglary 

• Liberal Democrats call for return to neighbourhood policing and reversal of officer cuts 

A new poll commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has found that nearly half of UK adults aren’t confident that the police would turn up and properly investigate if they were the victim of some crimes.

Around three in five adults say they would not be confident that the police would turn up and properly investigate if their home was burgled (58%) or their car was stolen (63%).

Meanwhile, just one in ten would be very confident (11% for burglaries and 10% for car theft). 

Those aged over 65 have the least confidence in the police turning up to serious crimes. Seven in ten (73%) are not confident of the police arriving to the scene of a burglary at their house.

The Liberal Democrats have argued that these attitudes are a direct result of the Conservative party’s poor record on crime.

The Conservative Government’s ineffective resourcing has left frontline policing over-stretched and under-resourced. This includes taking over 4,500 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) off the streets since 2015, and assigning just 12% of officers to neighbourhood policing teams.

New Home Office statistics, published just last week, highlight the rising problem of unsolved crime. In the year to June, 76% of burglaries and 77% of car thefts went unsolved - and nearly 6,000 crimes went unsolved across England and Wales every single day.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a return to proper community policing, where officers are visible and trusted, with the time and resources to focus on tackling local crime.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs Alistair Carmichael MP said:

“These findings are scandalous - but with the vast majority of burglaries and car thefts going unsolved, it is difficult to find them shocking.

“A crisis of confidence is unfolding in front of our eyes, all thanks to the Conservative Government’s incompetence and inability to prioritise frontline policing. The Home Secretary needs to address this, before it’s too late. 

“People need to feel confident that if they do fall victim to crime, the police will turn up and investigate properly. This will only be possible if proper community policing is finally restored.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Methodology: Savanta interviewed 2,069 UK adults aged 18+ online between 28th and 30th October 2023. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region, and social grade.

Full data results can be accessed here. 

If you were the victim of the following crimes in the UK, how confident would you be that the police would turn up and properly investigate? Base: All respondents (n= 2096)

Data on overall crime outcomes taken from Table 2.1: Outcomes assigned to offences recorded in year to June 2021 to year to June 2023, by outcome type and group, from Home Office, Crime outcomes year to June 2023: data tables.

Data on PCSO cuts can be found here, based on Home Office, Police Workforce: England and Wales, Table H7 (various editions).

Data on neighbourhood policing team size can be found here, based on Home Office, Police workforce England and Wales statistics.