Influencing Trust and Confidence in the London Metropolitan Police: Results from an Experiment Testing the Effect of Leaflet Drops on Public Opinion
- 25 February 2010
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The British Journal of Criminology
- Vol. 50 (3), 491-513
- https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azq005
Abstract
Enhancing trust and confidence has moved to the centre of policing policy in England and Wales. The association between direct encounters with police officers and confidence in the police is well-established. But is it possible for the police to increase confidence among the general population including those people who do not routinely come into direct contact with police officers? This paper presents the findings from a quasi-randomised experiment conducted on population representative samples in seven London wards that assessed the impact of a leaflet drop on public perceptions of policing. The results provide strong evidence of an improvement in overall confidence, and in perceptions of police–community engagement, specifically. The leaflets also appear to have had a buffering effect against declines in public assessments of police effectiveness. The findings support the idea that public trust and confidence can be enhanced by direct police communication of this type.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Crime, policing and social order: on the expressive nature of public confidence in policingBritish Journal of Sociology, 2009
- Contact and confidence: revisiting the impact of public encounters with the policePolicing and Society, 2009
- We never call the cops and here is why: A qualitative examination of legal cynicism in three philadelphia neighborhoodsCriminology, 2007
- “POLICE DON'T LIKE BLACK PEOPLE”: AFRICAN‐AMERICAN YOUNG MEN'S ACCUMULATED POLICE EXPERIENCES*Criminology & Public Policy, 2007
- Public Confidence in PolicingThe British Journal of Criminology, 2006
- Asymmetry in the Impact of Encounters with PolicePolicing and Society, 2006
- Policing, Recognition, and BelongingThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2006
- Police reform and the problem of trustTheoretical Criminology, 2005
- Moral Solidarity, Identification with the Community, and the Importance of Procedural Justice: The Police as Prototypical Representatives of a Group's Moral ValuesSocial Psychology Quarterly, 2003
- The multiple dimensions of trust in resident/police relations in BostonJournal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 2001