About this release

• The proportion of adults who gave the local police a positive rating (said they did a good or excellent job) was 63% in 2013/14. This represents a small increase from the 2012/13 figure (61%) and is similar to the 2011/12 figure (62%). While not directly comparable, prior to this, the proportion of adults who gave the local police a positive rating increased from 47% in 2003/04 to 59% in 2010/11

• The proportion of adults who reported seeing police officers or police community support officers (PCSOs) on foot patrol in their local area about once a week or more (high police visibility) was 32% in 2013/14. This continues the downward trend seen since 2010/11 when the reported level of high police visibility was at its peak (39%). Prior to 2010/11, the proportion of adults reporting high visibility rose from 26% in 2006/07

• There were 19% of adults who thought it was either “very” or “fairly likely” that they would be a victim of crime within the next 12 months

• In line with previous surveys, those who had been a victim of crime in the last year were more likely to: consider both local and national crime rates to have risen over the last few years; have a high level of worry about crime; and to think it likely they would suffer victimisation in the year ahead, than non-victims

• Those who were victims of crime in the previous 12 months reported significantly lower personal well-being than non-victims for measures relating to “life satisfaction”, “life worthwhile”, and “happiness yesterday”. There was no significant difference for “anxious yesterday”

This release is the third of 3 annual ‘Focus on’ publications produced through collaboration between ONS and Home Office analysts. The first 2 focused on property crime (published in November 2014) and violent crime (published in February 2015). These publications presented data from both police recorded crime and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). This publication mostly uses data from the CSEW, although there are occasional references to other data sources.

The first chapter explores people's overall ratings and confidence in the police. It then looks at measures of police visibility, before tying the two together and examining the relationship between visibility and ratings of the police. Included in this are both trends over time and demographic breakdowns from the 2013/14 CSEW. It finishes by considering victim satisfaction with the police, another key measure of police performance.

Chapter 2 presents findings from the 2013/14 CSEW and looks at people’s perception of changing crime levels in their local area and in the country as a whole, including the sources of information that helped inform their opinions. It also examines people’s perceived likelihood of victimisation and their worry about crimes including demographic breakdowns.

Chapter 3 looks at people’s personal well-being, and the differences between how victims of crime rate their personal well-being compared with non-victims. The analysis uses as its source combined data from both the 2012/13 and 2013/14 CSEW. Combining data from two survey years increases the number of incidents available for analysis and enables comparisons between victims and non victim’s wellbeing for most crime types.

Published alongside this report are a number of supplementary tables. These are not referred to in this report, but provide information on a range of associated topics. Examples of tables included are, the public’s use of online crime maps ( Table S3 (302.5 Kb Excel sheet) ), awareness and contact with police and crime commissioners ( Tables S7-10 (302.5 Kb Excel sheet) ), and confidence in the criminal justice system ( Tables S11-S13 (302.5 Kb Excel sheet) ).

The Data sources and references section and User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales give more details on each of the sources used in this release.