Report Summary
This report provides members of the Policing Performance Committee with highlights and insights arising from routine public polling conducted in August 2025.
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Police Performance
Respondents were also asked how good or poor they think the police in Scotland are doing at the moment, across key metrics including: keeping their local community safe, responding appropriately to 999/101 calls, protecting vulnerable people, investigating crimes and reducing crime and antisocial behaviour. Results are depicted in the graph below
Similar to the previous wave, respondents were most positive about the performance of the police in keeping local communities safe; two in five (39%) respondents believed the police were doing a good job in this regard, an increase of four percentage points from August, while three in ten (31%) said they were doing a poor job at this, unchanged from the previous wave. Similarly, under two in five (37%) thought the police were doing a good job responding appropriately to 999/101 calls, also a four percentage point increase from August, while under one in four (23%) thought they were doing a bad job at this, a two percentage point decrease . Notably, one in four (24%) said they didn’t know how the police were doing in responding appropriately to 999/101 calls.
Just under one in three reported that the police were doing a good job protecting vulnerable people (32%) and investigating crimes (32%), each up marginally from the previous wave, although similar proportions said they were doing a poor job at this (30% and 30%, respectively). Only one in four (24%) thought the police were doing a good job reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, while about half (47%) thought they were doing a poor job at this, similar to findings from August.
Performance: Gender Differences
Gender was correlated with perceptions of police performance. Across almost all variables measured, female respondents were more likely than male respondents to report that the police were doing a good job, while male respondents were more likely to report that they thought the police were doing a poor job.
For investigating crimes, this gender difference is particularly notable. Under two in five (37%) female respondents believed the police were doing a good job investigating crimes compared to just over one in four (27%) male respondents. In contrast, over one in three (36%) male respondents thought the police were doing a poor job investigating crimes, compared to one in four (24%) female respondents that said the same.
