Keeping confidence on the agenda

The goal of increasing public confidence in policing, introduced in 2004, replaced a wide range of measures under New Labour. It was the last target abolished by the Coalition Government in 2010, when Theresa May warned the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO, now NPCC) of coming austerity, saying “The cuts will be big”. The phrase “confidence agenda” was often used in the intervening years, but has faded as the Home Secretary’s warning has proved accurate. Here I make some brief points as to why we should keep confidence on the agenda.

Confidence is a comparatively new term, yet it lies at the heart of the most frequently referred to Peelian principle:

“To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence”

Peel’s vision goes beyond simply demanding the police share characteristics in common with the public. It is a more substantive form of representation –  ideally each party shares civic duties that contribute to the public good. The public are a key source of information, and their trust and cooperation are often key to law enforcement. Even if confidence is not a target, it is also not just “nice to have”, or something we can do without during austerity. I would argue it is more crucial for a service undergoing cuts and reforms, during economic hardship, and in times where the police are the backstop for other services being cut.

Neither is measuring confidence a “nice to have.” If we stop trying to understand the public’s relation with the police, or lose sight of what we already know, we may not be able to track the effects of wide-scale changes to governance and to the nature of crime. As someone critical of the rhetoric of “evidence-based management” I am concerned if austerity means forces cut back on investing in understanding the communities they serve. If we want to understand public attitudes, and want these to be representative, large-scale, face-to-face surveys can provide good evidence, even if they are expensive and – like any methodology – have flaws.

Confidence is also on the agenda when it comes to governance. Unfortunately there is a democratic deficit at the heart of policing today. We could try to impress on people their civic duty to vote – so they “are the police” in Peel’s sense. But first we need people to have confidence in the PCC model. Other deficits undermine confidence – PCCs lack developed structures for accountability, they failed to fulfil statutory requirements to be transparent and few people understand their role. Austerity politics itself is a choreography of opposites: centralised cuts alongside devolution. This is powerful because it creates ambiguity, shifting blame as well as power – but it can also undermine faith in institutions and representatives.

We also need critical perspectives on confidence – confidence should mean support and shared civic responsibility, but it does not mean blind faith. A public confident in policing will also be confident the police can be held to account. A critical perspective also shows that when we consider “policing and public confidence” it is important to remember the police deal with multiple publics – some groups are vulnerable or lack voice or representation, are systematically disadvantaged, or face discrimination.

Ultimately though, what does confidence mean? A series of papers by Ben Bradford – shows confidence is multi-faceted. It can be related to trust, legitimacy, fear of crime, visibility, feelings of fairness. It can also reflect more general beliefs about justice or institutions, or (as in the Peelian principle above) the extent to which people identify with the police. Crucially, it is different from other measures such as satisfaction – which require direct experience of the police.

This suggests a related, final appeal of understanding confidence, and a reason to interest readers of Policing Insight. It can be a way to track the effectiveness of the PCC model.

We are discussing confidence in policing at a 1-day conference on the 29th March at the University of Warwick. This is being sponsored by the British Academy and by Warwick Business School, our keynote speakers are ACC Marcus Beale of West Midlands Police and Bernard Rix, CEO of CoPaCC and Policing Insight. We will share contributions from the day through the conference website and on Twitter via #confidenceagenda2016. Please join the debate on social media and the discussions beyond.