More than eight out of 10 people in the North now have confidence in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, according to an independent survey carried out for the North's Policing Board.
Slightly more Protestants than Catholics believe that the PSNI can provide "an ordinary day-to-day policing service for all of the people of Northern Ireland", while overall the trend of confidence in the police continues to rise, the study has found.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency carried out the random survey of 1,149 people in April and May this year after Sinn Féin decided to support the police. It found that while 79 per cent of people had confidence in the PSNI in October last year, that figure had increased to 83 per cent by April/May this year.
Overall, 86 per cent of Protestants surveyed had some confidence, a lot of confidence or total confidence in the police, while 83 per cent of Catholics had the same level of confidence.
The study, which makes a distinction between performance and confidence in the PSNI, also found that people were more satisfied generally, than locally, with the performance of the police. For instance, 61 per cent of people in local areas thought that police performance was very or fairly good, while in the North as a whole 65 per cent of people thought that the police were doing a good job.
Forty-three per cent were satisfied with the levels of police patrols in their areas, an increase of 8 percentage points, while the number of those who were dissatisfied fell from 38 per cent to 33 per cent.
To a question asked for the first time, 90 per cent of respondents felt very/fairly safe in their local community.
The chairman of the board, Prof Sir Desmond Rea, welcomed the findings.
"These figures show that real progress is being made, but there is still considerable work to be done, particularly in engaging communities that have been disaffected in the past, and this is a priority for the board to ensure," he said.
