Confidence in NI police drops

The percentage of people who have confidence in the PSNI’s ability to provide ordinary day to day policing has dropped to 80 per cent - down 7 per cent from April - according to a survey published today.

The Independent Omnibus Survey measures how the public rate services delivered by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships (DPPs).

It found 56 per cent of people think the police are doing a good job in their area -down from 64 per cent in April – while 71 per cent of respondents were very or fairly satisfied that the police treat members of the public fairly in Northern Ireland as a whole.

Chairman of the Policing Board Barry Gilligan described the drop in confidence and performance levels as a “concern”.

He said “plans to refocus resources to improve the policing service delivered to the community and deal with community crime concerns - all of this work is underpinned by the need to build confidence in policing."

The survey found that only 62 per cent of people had heard of DPPs and of those who had, 72 per cent had some confidence they help address local policing issues.

In relation to the policing board only 43 per cent of respondents thought it did well or very well in monitoring how the PSNI performs against Annual Policing Plan targets.

The survey of 1,924 households randomly selected across Northern Ireland is carried out several times a year.