Introduction
South Wales Police's vision is to be the best at understanding and responding to the needs of all our communities. We are aware that recent national and international events may have affected levels of trust and confidence and we are seeking to understand your views and respond to issues that affect you in your local area.
We would welcome the opportunity to update you on the approach we are taking to various aspects of policing via email and get your views and suggestions to further improve the service we provide. We hope to seek your responses to a few short questions to help us focus our approach on what matters to you.
South Wales Police really value your opinion and will listen to the feedback provided in this survey.
Your responses will remain strictly confidential and anonymised responses will be used by South Wales Police. Your personal details will not be forwarded to a third party.
Section One: Feelings of Safety
Q1. How safe do you feel in your local community?
Q1b. Please can you tell us why you feel unsafe in your community?
Q2. Please say how much you agree or disagree with the following statement; Taking everything into account, I have confidence in South Wales Police.
Q3. What are the top 3 issues affecting you in your community that would benefit from joint working between Police, Partners and community members to resolve?
An answer to this question is required.
Section Two: Stop and Search
One of the areas that we are interested in getting your views on is stop and search as it has had some focus in the media and is one of the ways in which we prevent and detect crime.
Q4. Have you ever been stopped and searched by South Wales Police?
Q5. To what extent do you agree that South Wales Police use their powers of stop-search fairly? If you have not been stop searched, please tell us what your perception is.
Police have powers to stop and search people, to use this power Officers must have reasonable grounds to suspect a person is in possession of a stolen or banned item.
We want to make sure that everyone in the community feels these powers are being used fairly. Officers search an average of 30 people a day from a population of 1.3 million which equates to 3 – 4 searches per year for each warranted officer. In just under a third of all searches, either items of relevance are found or other matters are resolved.
We are working very hard to ensure that these powers are used fairly and this is an improving picture but we are aware there is still much work to do. We now record all stop searches on Body worn video to assist our transparency and accountability.
Q6. In light of this information, would you like to see:
Section Three: Use of Force
Q7. How confident are you that South Wales Police use force fairly? (If you do not know, please tell us your perception)
Sometimes Officers will need to use force while on duty. However, Officers must ensure that when they do use force against people that they’re doing so appropriately and use no more force than is necessary.
Each time force is used it is recorded on our systems and on average, use of force is recorded 406 times a week. Officers are also required to submit a record each time force is used and this is then reviewed by independent members of the public to hold the force to account.
Did you know that use of force also includes the use of handcuffing and verbal communication with Officers, and is not limited to physical contact or discharge of a taser for example?
Q7a. With this in mind, how often do you think a taser is discharged in a week within South Wales?
Answer - A taser is used once a week in South Wales.
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Section Four: How we engage with you
Q8. Where do you currently receive most of your policing information from?
Q9. How would you prefer South Wales Police to engage with you?
Section Five: Conclusion
Q10. Finally, based upon the information we have been able to share with you today. Which of the following statements is most reflective of your confidence in South Wales Police now?
Section Six: Demographics
South Wales Police wants to make sure that all its services are accessible to everyone. We therefore ask you to answer the following questions so we can be sure our services are delivered fairly and that no-one is discriminated against. All questions are voluntary, by choosing to answer them you are helping us to ensure that we treat everyone accessing our services equally.
Q11. What is your age group? Please note: You can only register if you are over the age of 18.
An answer to this question is required
Q12. Which term best describes your gender?
Q13. How would you describe your ethnicity?
An answer to this question is required
