Quickly exit this site by pressing the Escape key Quick exit
We use some essential cookies to make our website work. We’d like to set additional cookies so we can remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.
You can manage your preferences and cookie settings at any time by clicking on “Customise Cookies” below. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies notice.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Sorry, there was a technical problem. Please try again.
24th Jan 2025
Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Scott, has published data which shows trust in the police has risen over the last year. In his annual Policing Survey, residents of Kent rated their confidence level in the force as 6.4/10, compared to last year’s 6/10.
Residents were asked to score their trust level on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not at all and 10 being very much. 63% scored their trust as 6 or more, with only 25% rating it 4 or under. Again, this is an improvement on last year when 57% of respondents scored 6 or above and nearly 32% ranked their trust level as 4 or under.
Victims of crime still have less trust in the police, rating it 5/10, but that too is an improvement on last year’s 4.5/10.
Feeling safe where you live
People also report feeling safer where they live, with an average score of 7/10 compared to 6.3/10 last year. However, those who said they’d been a victim of antisocial behaviour scored their feelings of safety slightly less at 5.6/10.
Matthew Scott says,
“There is encouraging news in these results. It shows the changes embarked on by Kent Police are beginning to yield results with feelings of safety and trust rising. However, there is still more to be done and I am determined to work with the Chief Constable to build on this. We are working together to improve communication with victims and witnesses, improve investigations so that more crimes are solved and the neighbourhood policing model is starting to deliver better visibility.”
Antisocial behaviour
This year’s survey dedicated a section to antisocial behaviour (asb), to find out what was happening where. A disappointing 55% of the population told us they’d either been a victim of or a witness to asb. Rowdy inconsiderate behaviour, littering, vehicles nuisance, drugs and off-road motorcycles were the most common complaints. Only about 35% of the population reported these incidents to the police or relevant authority.
However, when asked if they’d been a victim of any other type of crime the vast majority have not (73%). Most of those who had did report it to the police or other authorities like schools or Crimestoppers. Sadly however, nearly 54% of them were not satisfied with the outcome.
Police performance
There was a discrepancy when we asked people to rate the performance of Kent Police. Although performance rating has improved this year* with the majority (55%) thinking the force does a good job and scoring it on average 5.8/10, victims of crime were not as favourable, rating it 4.4/10.
The survey also asked whether people had seen a police officer on the beat in the last year (54% said they had); whether people felt safe in their nearest town centre (on average people rated that 5.8/10) and how victims had reported crime (with calling 999 or reporting online the preferred methods). We also asked people whether they agreed with the priorities in our Police and Crime Plan, which overwhelmingly they did.
6767 people filled in the anonymous survey.
You can read the full report on our website on our Public consultations
page.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
* In 2024 55% scored police performance 6 or above, with 28% rating it 4 or below. We asked this question slightly differently last year, but then only 40% ranked Kent Police’ performance as good or very good, and 34% rated it as poor or very poor, suggesting there has been an overall improvement in performance.
6767 people filled out the anonymous survey, which is the highest number we’ve ever had for our annual Policing Survey. Thank you all for taking part.