What does it mean when we ask the public if they are “confident” in policing? The Trust, Fairness, Presence model of “public confidence”

Morrell, K.; Bradford, B.; Javid, B.

doi:10.1177/1461355719891197

What does it mean when we ask the public if they are “confident” in policing? The Trust, Fairness, Presence model of “public confidence”

Morrell, K.; Bradford, B.; Javid, B.

Authors

K. Morrell

B. Bradford

B. Javid

Abstract

‘Confidence’ is widely taken to be a crucial measure of the relationship between citizens and public services such as policing. It is acknowledged that confidence is multifaceted and hard to measure, but often discussions are based on one ‘headline’ rating of a single item, for instance: ‘What is your level of confidence in…’. The subsequent focus for research is explaining what might drive ‘confidence’, or what it might predict. We are interested in a more fundamental question: what does it mean when we ask the public if they are ‘confident’ in policing? To answer this, we analyse extensive and detailed survey data specifically designed to measure public confidence, within the jurisdiction of a UK police force – West Midlands Police. We develop then validate a three-part model of confidence as trust, fairness and presence, and find good evidence to support this model across different waves of the survey. This extends existing literature with implications for policy.

Citation

Morrell, K., Bradford, B., & Javid, B. (2020). What does it mean when we ask the public if they are “confident” in policing? The Trust, Fairness, Presence model of “public confidence”. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 22(2), 111-122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719891197

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 18, 2019
Online Publication Date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication Date	Jun 1, 2020
Deposit Date	Oct 28, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Nov 20, 2019
Journal	International Journal of Police Science and Management
Print ISSN	1461-3557
Electronic ISSN	1478-1603
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	22
Issue	2
Pages	111-122
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719891197
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1286543

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Copyright Statement
Morrell, K., Bradford, B. & Javid, B. (2020). What does it mean when we ask the public if they are “confident” in policing? The Trust, Fairness, Presence model of “public confidence”. International Journal of Police Science and Management 22(2): 111-122. Copyright © 2019 The Author(s) DOI: 10.1177/1461355719891197