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Neighbourhood policing is central to supporting public confidence in England and Wales. However, the delivery of neighbourhood policing models is increasingly fragmented and under pressure from austerity measures and from changes to demand and priorities. This research aims to understand the current state of neighbourhood policing in the county of “Rackhamshire” and its ability to support public confidence.

The authors conducted six focus groups, three with officers who were part of Community Policing Teams (CPTs) and three with members of the community who were actively engaged with community policing and local concerns. These were supplemented by two interviews with senior officers (35 participants in total).

Austerity-driven changes to policing in Rackhamshire have damaged the capacities of CPTs and residents have begun to lose confidence in the ability of the police to respond to their fears. The authors argue that reforms intended to make policing more efficient and effective appear to have the opposite effect on community policing, by preventing it from working in a way that can support public confidence and that this could have longer-term consequences.

The effects of austerity on the mechanisms by which neighbourhood policing supports confidence have been relatively neglected. By exploring the state of these mechanisms in one English constabulary, this research has exposed serious weaknesses in the way that community policing is able to support public confidence and suggests practical operational responses. In light of these findings, this study argues for the urgent reinstatement of earlier models of neighbourhood policing.

This study attempts to determine how political legitimacy and regime change affect the level of public confidence in the Mexican police. The current study also aims to examine to what extent socioeconomic and attitudinal factors are associated with levels of police confidence among Mexican citizens.

The data used in this study were obtained from two Mexican surveys conducted as part of the World Value Surveys (WVS) in 1996 and 2005. Owing to the nature of the dependent variable, a series of ordinal logistic regression analyses was employed to examine the effects of political legitimacy, regime change, attitudinal, and socioeconomic factors on public confidence in the Mexican police while controlling other relevant factors.

Consistent with prior research, results confirmed that public confidence in the police was positively associated with political legitimacy (i.e. support for regime institutions and system support), happiness, life satisfaction, marital status, and religious activity. Yet, age, education, and size of the town were negatively related to public confidence.

Since the current study used secondary data, the availability of information was limited. Only one nation was studied which limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research may attempt to study other Latin‐American nations, including Mexico, in order to address the issue of public confidence in policing on a greater scale. Further, as the police alone cannot take full credit in the public's perception of law enforcement, it is imperative that future studies also examine other government agencies (i.e. courts, prosecutors) that may lend more information on this subject.

While the police and some governing agencies may not be able to change most of the factors studied in this research, they can strive to cultivate better trust among the citizenry and seek to improve quality of life in neighborhoods which may lead to greater happiness and life satisfaction factors that may then increase the level of confidence in the police.

To find out how much confidence the Turkish public have in the police, how that confidence is compared with other relevant countries in the world, and how to interpret the confidence in the police in Turkey.

Data from national representative samples were analyzed to compare the levels of public confidence in the police between Turkey and the member states in the European Union, between Turkey and its neighboring countries, and between Turkey and several Muslim societies.

This paper found that public confidence in the Turkish police was quite high when compared to member states of the EU, neighboring countries, and with selected Muslim nations.

The findings fill an existing void in the criminological literature assessing the Turkish public's confidence in its police. The results should be interpreted in light of the following realities: that Turkey remains a nation with a collectivistic orientation, the possible undifferentiated concepts between the effectiveness of the police and confidence in the police, and the unidimensional measure that was employed to examine public confidence.

Given the tumultuous history of policing in South Africa, the historic relationship between the police and the public, and the continuous rising crime rates, it is perplexing that little quantitative research has been conducted on legitimacy and the SAPS. The current study assesses public confidence in police in South Africa by analyzing data from a more than three-decade-old public opinion survey. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine changes in public confidence since 1981; and second, to determine factors that cause variations in confidence during a given period.

To achieve the objectives, the authors analyzed longitudinal data collected from 1981 to 2014 as part of the world Value Survey program. ANOVA and multivariate regression analyses were conducted.

Findings indicate that confidence in SAPS was highest during the period immediately after apartheid and then dwindled from 1999 onwards. Moreover, race, happiness and education have historically influenced public confidence in the police.

These findings provide information that could be useful for transforming the SAPS, especially in developing viable strategies to strengthen the police’s relationship with citizens. Additionally, the manuscript provides an original contribution to the study of public attitudes toward the police and police legitimacy, especially in a non-western society.

To re‐test the hypothesis that that the public in Japan have a higher confidence in the police than their counterparts in the USA.

Data from the national representative samples were analyzed to compare the levels of confidence in the police between the USA and Japan. The new analysis addressed four methodological limitations found in the previous study.

With more updated data and more appropriate method, the results confirmed the previous study that the US public have a significantly higher confidence in the police than the Japanese public.

Many qualitative studies have found or argued that the public in Japan have higher confidence in their police than their counterparts in the USA. Only one quantitative analysis has found the opposite. One safeguard against overgeneralization in social science is through replication of the inquiry. The duplication of the previous research findings is important because a strong scientific conclusion is based on the one that examines the theoretically deduced hypothesis at one of the indefinitely large number of times and places that it could be tested, and because duplication is critical in social sciences based on cross‐sectional surveys which are time‐dependent and time‐sensitive.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the concept of “confidence”, to assess its relationship with customer contact and to identify the dimensions and triggers of “confidence” in an important organisation with which many people may have only limited contact.

The research was commissioned by the Northamptonshire Police in the UK and was based on data collected through focus groups held in the area. The groups were split into individuals who had limited contact with the police and individuals who had traumatic dealings with the police (e.g. had been the victim of a serious crime).

The findings supported earlier research which suggested that there was a fall in confidence after contact with the police. The analysis of the discussions revealed four key dimensions of confidence (i.e. what made people feel confident). Several types of confidence triggers were also identified, over some of which the police have control, pre‐contact, during contact and post‐contact.

The research focused on one public sector organisation using a small number of focus group interviews.

Organisations can influence, at least to some extent, consumer confidence before use. The research also questions whether some organisations should assess confidence rather than, or in addition to, satisfaction.

The UK police service has a major challenge to introduce innovative ways of improving efficiency and productivity, whilst at the same time improving public opinion as to their effectiveness in the “fight against crime”. The purpose of this paper is to outline an exploratory study of the ability to cluster police forces based on their sanction detection levels over a number of different offence groups and whether these clusters have different associated public opinions towards them.

Using secondary data and the fuzzy c‐means clustering technique to exposit clusters of police forces based on sanction detection levels, relating them in a statistical analysis with public opinion on the police.

The clustering analysis shows how police forces can be considered relative to each other, based on their sanction detection levels of certain offence groups, including; burglary, fraud and forgery and criminal damage. Using the established clusters of police forces, in respect of independent variables relating to public opinion, including confidence in police; there does appear to be statistically significant differences amongst the clusters of police force.

The results demonstrate the connection between the police's attempt to fight crime and public opinion. With the public opinion measures considered post the establishing of police forces’ clusters, the results show the public does notice the level of sanction detections achieved. The identified disconnect of the public with the criminal justice system is something that can be improved on in the future.

Demonstrates that there is a significant link in the relationship between the levels of sanction detection levels of police forces and public opinion about their ability to fight crime.

This paper employs fuzzy c‐means, a modern clustering technique nascent in this area of research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine public perceptions of police efforts to control crime in South Korea.

The data were gathered from surveys administered to college students in the Seoul-Gyeonggi Province metropolitan area. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the impact of gender, fear of crime and perceived risk of victimization on diffuse and specific perceptions of police performance.

The respondents did not view the police favorably. Fewer than half the respondents reported that the police do a good job of controlling drunk driving, approximately a quarter reported that the police do a good job of controlling burglary and investigating homicide and roughly a fifth reported believing that the police effectively control crime. Violent victimization and fear of violent victimization had a significant negative impact on confidence in the police.

The data suggest that informing the public about the low risk of violent victimization and other publicity campaigns designed to reduce fear of violence may foster confidence in the police.

This study identifies subtle similarities and differences in the structure of public perceptions of the police between Eastern and Western nations. Additionally, the data indicate there is a need for greater specificity in measures of public perceptions of the police.

Considers the impact of a range of variables on confidence in the police, including those given little or no previous attention, e.g. measures of crime experience and of conservative political orientation. Draws data from a larger study of urban crime‐prevention issues based on Cincinnati, Ohio. Finds that respondents’ race is not a significant determinant of confidence in the police; the most important determinant being the community context. Suggests that neighborhood social integration may provide a supportive context which could encourage positive evaluation of formal institutional arrangements. Finds that attitudes toward the police (ATP) are regulated by the social context and that much of the existing research, which excluded contextual variables, may have been wrong in making race a significant variable. Notes that confidence in the police is higher in women than in men, but this may be due to a lower rate of antagonistic contact between police and women (not measured here).

Given the consistent finding in the literature that members of minority groups hold less favorable views of the police than white citizens, social distance may be an important, yet untested, mediator. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of social distance net of other established correlates.

A sample of students attending a university in the northeastern USA completed an online survey in 2013. The survey was about their contact with the police, attitudes toward the police, and lifestyles, among others.

Race, along with other predictors, significantly influenced confidence in police. However, race is the only factor that turns nonsignificant when social distance is included in the model. Mediation tests confirmed that social distance mediates the relationship between race and confidence in the police.

To maximize confidence in the police, administrators should focus on closing the social distance between the public and the police through initiatives like community policing.

While there is extensive research on public attitudes toward the police, social distance has been neglected as a determinant, despite movements like community policing that promote citizens’ relational closeness to the police – that is, to decrease the social distance between police and the public. The current study would be an exploratory study and reference for future studies.