Public Perception

A wealth of research has been conducted about public trust and police, for example from institutions such as the Justice Inspectorate¹⁰ and London School of Economics¹¹. In our research we found that public trust in police forces is heavily influenced by the perception the public have of the police’s use of technology, as evidenced in particular by media articles and reports. Common misconceptions include a belief that the police have access to advanced technology resources, and that reduced officer presence on the street means fundamental policing work is not being done¹². The other four themes all play a part in influencing public trust and perception, as the way forces approach these challenges will have an impact on their local communities.One of the most consistent points raised – by seven out of the sixteen interview participants – was that there is a large gap between what the public think the police are capable of doing with technology, and how police actually use technology. This gap between perception and reality is one of the underlying causes of public fear and mistrust of the police. For example, many forces pointed to a public belief that the use of facial recognition technology is far more commonplace than it truly is. One force said:"We as a force here have purposefully chosen not to go down the route of using facial recognition in terms of scanning crowds for wanted people etc… [we are] aware of the contention that sits around that in terms of accuracy of that capability, the degree to which it's discriminatory."
There is also increasing opportunity to allow easier and more open communication with the public. Technology enables citizens to contact the police through more communication channels – police organisations who have not yet modernised may not be as accessible to their community as they could be. This was raised by participants as an area of great opportunity for forces, with one force telling us about the potential virtual communications they are now exploring: “We'll always have the traditional telephone, but we want to move to [more of a] chat function from our online platforms. [The] chat bots we're exploring now - we should be able to automate when we know the types of queries that members of the public ring about.”If forces are able to embrace the possibilities that technology can bring in communicating openly and transparently with the public, it could enable them to be more inclusive and to build better relationships that generate higher levels of trust within their local communities.