Local Confidence Surveys
The Government has set every force a target to raise public confidence that the police and local council are dealing with the anti social behaviour and crime issues that matter locally.
The proportion of people surveyed in each of the following areas, agree that the police and local council are dealing with the anti social behaviour and crime issues that matter in their area:
Area Proportion
Durham CDRP* 69.6%
Darlington CDRP* 76.3%
These are the results of a telephone survey that was conducted in these areas which asked local people whether they agreed that:
“The police and local council are dealing with the anti social behaviour and crime issues that matter in this area.”
Care should be taken in making comparisons in local indicators that have used different survey techniques
An alternative and more over-arching measure of confidence which is asked as part of the same survey and is therefore in support of the above results, is to measure the proportion of people, in the same areas as above, who agree that they are confident that overall the police do a good job:
Area Proportion
Durham CDRP* 87.5%
Darlington CDRP* 90.7%
As well as being confident in your local police and local council, it is important that you feel safe in the local area where you live. As part of the same survey, we ask the question ‘Do you feel safe in your local area?’ The result shows that more than 9 out of 10 people do feel safe in their local areas:
Area Proportion
Durham CDRP* 93.9%
Darlington CDRP* 94.2%
Durham Police Authority and Durham Constabulary are committed to responding to your concerns with regard to the local areas in which you live, especially with regard to anti social behaviour and when asked ‘Do you suffer from anti social behaviour in your local area?’ the following results were shown:
Area Proportion
Durham CDRP* 38.0%
Darlington CDRP* 33.0%
With the above in mind, Durham Police Authority and Durham Constabulary have made tackling anti social behaviour and quality of life issues one of its top priorities.
Technical footnote:
The survey is based on a random sample of people in the local area. The use of a random sample aims to ensure the results are statistically representative of the local population. Compared to other estimates of how the population is made up, the sample for this survey may under-represent some subgroups.
*CDRP: Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership where responsible authorities have a statutory duty to work with other agencies and organisations to develop and deliver strategies to reduce crime and disorder including anti social behaviour that affects the local environment, as well as the misuse of drugs in their area.
How we are performing
Durham Police Authority strives to continually improve the service provided by Durham Constabulary by carefully monitoring its performance in terms of both efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Key policing objectives and targets are set for the Police by both the Home Secretary and the Police Authority following consultation with local people. These are outlined in the annual Local Policing Plan, which also sets out how the Authority intends to secure 'best value' and continuous improvement for the people of County Durham and Darlington by reviewing the functions of the police and setting performance improvement plans for those functions.
Durham Constabulary’s performance is then reported in the Annual Report.
Performance is monitored regularly through the Effective Policing Committee.
In practice, the work of the Effective Policing Committee involves:
- Agreeing the performance that we expect from the Force with the Chief Constable, and setting down that performance in the annual Local Policing Plan.
- Monitoring the Force's performance against the targets agreed in the Local Policing Plan, giving credit where due, and investigating further where performance has not met expectations.
- Working with the Force in support of our overall plans for making County Durham and Darlington safer to review all aspects of the local policing services provided by the force, challenging current practice, consulting service users, comparing performance and ensuring that our services are competitive.
- Working in partnership with Durham Constabulary to explore the best ways of policing the local area.
Crime statistics produced by Durham Constabulary are broken down to areas in County Durham and Darlington by crime type; these are updated regularly.