Policing for London

Marian FitzGerald, Mike Hough, Ian Joseph, Tariq Qureshi

• Publisher: Willan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138415812
• eBook ISBN: 9781134041589
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This title presents the findings of the Policing for London project, an independent investigation into policing in London in the wake of the death of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent MacPherson Report. The main aim of the project was to identify the factors the police in London needed to consider in order to deliver an equitable and effective service to the people of London in the 21st century.

The book sets out the findings of this project in terms of what Londoners wanted and needed for their policing, whether the Metropolitan Police was aware of the public's expectations, whether they met these expectations, and to examine how policing in London could be improved in the future. It also identifies a number of key policy issues in the light of its findings - for example in relation to the centralisation or devolution of decision making, specialisation of function, performance management, policing philosophies and partnership, and the need to regain the confidence of ethnic minority groups. In identifying the key issues facing policing in London this book provides a vital blueprint for addressing the question of police reform in the country as a whole - at a time of intense debate and concern about the future role of the police.

Part I

Background

Chapter One: Introduction

This report presents key findings from the ‘Policing for London’ project, a research study funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It provides a snapshot of policing in 2000, seen from the viewpoints of both the public and the police.

The origins of the study

The Metropolitan Police (MPS) initiated the study in the wake of the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence (the Macpherson Report, published in 1999). When the report was published, Sir Paul Condon, then Commissioner, announced that the MPS would commission an independent study along the lines of that carried out by David Smith and others at the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) in the early 1980s (Small 1983; Smith 1983a, 1983b; Smith and Gray 1983) which was published in the wake of the Scarman report into the Brixton riots of 1981. The challenges of policing an ethnically diverse community and of building confidence in the police especially within minority ethnic groups remained key concerns for MPS managers nearly 20 years on. They were looking for an authoritative study to help them assess the position at the end of the twentieth century and to provide a baseline against which to measure improvement as the MPS moved into the new millennium.

The MPS initially put the work out to competitive tender with a view to funding it by themselves or in partnership with another funder. It then became clear that the study would benefit from being carried out on a larger scale than originally envisaged. The MPS contacted a number of funders, and three of these, the Nuffield Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmeée Fairbairn Foundation, expressed interest. But their conditions were clear: they were willing to fund the work on the condition that it be funded wholly independently of the MPS. The funders were mindful of the importance of the MPS's continuing support for the study. But in the context of the new London-wide Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) they thought it would be important to establish that the work had been funded wholly independently of the MPS. The revised proposal went through full peer review and was revised to take into account reviewers’ comments. A wideranging advisory committee was established, of which the MPS and the MPA were prominent members. We have regarded both the MPS and the MPA¹ as primary audiences for the work.

Aims

The study had four related aims:

•to identify the diverse range of interests and concerns which the police need to consider if they are to deliver an equitable service to the population of London into the new century;

•to identify systematically current causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, along with the gap between service delivery and people's concerns and expectations;

•to identify the main reasons for the dissatisfaction and the obstacles to bridging the gap;

•to make practical recommendations for the necessary change.

Its starting point was that the population of London is richly diverse, and is becoming more so. Given that the impetus for the study was provided by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, ethnicity has been an important focus of our analysis, and far more data are available in this field than on other aspects of diversity. However, we are very conscious that the population is diverse in many other ways which have implications for any study of policing. Socioeconomic differences as well as differences in lifestyles and sexual orientation may be especially relevant. As far as our methods allow, we have tried to accommodate these in our analysis and we are conscious of them in framing our conclusions.

Research strategy

A study of this complexity must of necessity use a variety of research methods. We took as given that a follow-up to the PSI study would need to examine trends since 1981, when the PSI fieldwork took place, including any changes in the views and experiences of Londoners. So we were committed to a structured sample survey. However, we also wanted to set these trends in the context of wider developments in both society and policing and to get a sense of the underlying dynamics which shaped these views and experiences, as well as the reasons for any change over time. This required a qualitative dimension to the work and, in particular, one that would enable us to explore local variations in the London-wide picture and differences in the ways in which the issues are viewed by different stakeholders.

To meet these different requirements we settled on a research strategy that combined a representative sample survey of Londoners with detailed case studies in three London boroughs, involving focus groups, interviews and observation.

The survey

Further details of the methodology are in Appendix 2, and a full account can be found in the survey's technical report (Brown and Whitfield, 2002). In brief, the Policing for London Survey (PFLS) was undertaken for us by the National Centre for Social Research. It was designed to provide a random sample of about 2,750 people aged 15 or over within the Metropolitan Police area. The bulk of the fieldwork took place from July to November 2000, with a few interviews in December. In total 2,800 interviews were achieved. Ethnic minority respondents were over-sampled using a technique known as focused enumeration. In analysis data were weighted to restore representativeness.

Calculating response rates for a focused enumeration sample is complex. Our best estimate is an overall response rate of 49%, with a slightly higher rate for the core sample (see Appendix 2 for details). This is low against the benchmark of a straightforward national probability sample, where response rates of 65–75% are still achievable.² London response rates have always been lower than national ones, and focused enumeration samples pose particular challenges. The implications of the low response rate are considered in Appendix 2.

It is not possible to present response rates by ethnic group, as it was often impossible to establish the ethnic group of ‘non-responders’. Where such information was available, refusal rates were highest amongst white households, and non-contact rates highest amongst black ones. Language problems resulted in unproductive outcomes most frequently in Asian households. The technical report has full details.

The PFLS shares many questions with the original PSI survey. The surveys were broadly similar in design and size. The PSI one was also carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (under its previous name, Social and Community Planning Research). Interviewing took place in the second half of 1981. The PSI response rate was higher than PFLS's, at 70%, reflecting the generally higher response rates that could be achieved 20 years ago.

In designing our survey we took advantage of the fact that we could get access to the 2000 British Crime Survey (BCS), a large-scale survey designed primarily to provide a national index of crime (Kershaw et al 2001). This had a London subsample of 2,943 respondents who answered detailed questions on their experience of, and attitudes towards, the police. The BCS sample design was similar to that of PFLS, although differences in over-sampling yielded fewer Asians and more black and white respondents than PFLS. Where we needed precise estimates – for example, in measuring experience of the police – we pooled the two samples, using identical wording in the questionnaires. Appendix Tables A2.2 and A2.3 provide a demographic breakdown of the two samples, separately and in combination, benchmarked against ONS population estimates. The samples appear to reflect the London population well, but young people are slightly under-represented, as are males.

Like any survey, our estimates are imprecise because they are subject to sampling error. Wherever we comment in the text on differences between groups, it can be assumed that the difference is statistically significant – that is, the chances of the difference occurring by chance are less than five in a hundred.³

The case studies

In selecting the sites for our detailed case studies, the natural unit of analysis was the borough, especially since the MPS had recently moved to borough-based policing. In preparation for the study, we had compiled socioeconomic, demographic and crime statistics for each borough to allow us to draw up profiles for each (for full details see the PFLS website, www.policingforlondon.org). This enabled us to group the 32 boroughs into four clusters based on average levels of deprivation, as calculated by the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions in 1998.⁴ For our case studies, we chose three boroughs that were ethnically diverse in different ways. Borough A came from the affluent group, Borough B from the average and relatively deprived groups combined, and Borough C from the most deprived group of London boroughs.

In each of the case-study areas, we conducted four public focus groups in the summer of 2000. These comprised 106 local residents, selected on the basis of age, class and ethnicity (see Appendix 2). They were recruited by an agency specialising in this work, but the research team facilitated the groups. We also conducted a further nine focus groups with a sample of Year 11 students (young people aged 15 and 16, who were selected for us by their teachers) spread across the three sites. Their ethnic origins were very varied, but white pupils formed only a minority of the total.⁵ In each of the boroughs we also interviewed ‘key informants’: people from non-statutory organisations who had contact with the police on behalf of particular sections of the local population; local authority staff responsible for partnership working in each authority; and five of the local MPs.

We carried out a range of interviews and focus groups with the police in each area. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with all three local commanders, with their deputies in Boroughs A and C and with several other officers at Chief Inspector level holding general operational or management responsibilities. All heads of Community Safety Units (CSUs) were interviewed, as were heads of Management Information Units as well as officers with responsibility for partnership working and for schools liaison. Nineteen police focus groups were held in all, including three with civilian staff. A total of 130 officers participated in the focus groups, the majority of whom were of constable rank and covered a range of responsibilities.

In each area, at least one period of observation was undertaken in a custody suite and another of a car patrol. We also accompanied officers on foot patrol in two of our boroughs and on a drugs raid in a third. The fieldwork also offered numerous opportunities for observation of police-public interaction at the front counters of several police stations.

We promised all our respondents that we would preserve their anonymity and that we would endeavour to anonymise the boroughs also. Each was unique in some respects; but our main aim in studying them was to capture the likely differences in experience and perspective associated with living in different types of area. Throughout this study, therefore, we have tried to avoid providing details which would allow them easily to be identified.

The structure of the report

Chapter 2 describes the ‘operating context’ within which the MPS works. It considers changes in the population of the capital, as well as trends in crime, disorder and other demands on the police. It discusses changes in the legal and managerial framework within which the police work and developments in the policing of diverse communities.

Chapter 3 presents findings on public concerns, needs and wants. It covers anxiety about crime and people's views on policing priorities. Chapter 4 describes Londoners’ experience of the police both as ‘users’ and as suspects. Chapter 5 summarises levels of satisfaction amongst those with police experience, and aims to tease out the determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Chapter 6 discusses public confidence in the effectiveness and integrity of the MPS, and covers sources of information about policing and views about competence, fairness and accountability. Chapter 7 focuses on the group dimension to perceptions held by different sections of the public and the police and the different ways these play out in different areas.

Chapters 8 and 9 explore some of the reasons for variations in satisfaction with police performance: Chapter 8 considers the external constraints on responsive policing while Chapter 9 examines some of the organisational obstacles.

The final chapter offers our conclusions.

¹ The MPA came into existence in July 2000 and thus had no input into the shape of the study.

² Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2001b) provides response rates for major British cross-sectional surveys. Eight out of 20 a...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Summary
• PART I BACKGROUND
• PART II THE RESEARCH FINDINGS
• PART III DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
• Appendixes
• References