Leicestershire Constabulary covers an area of over 965 square miles and a population of almost one million people. In one of the UK’s biggest multi-cultural regions, the force is required to cater for the rich diversity of communities that live within its boundaries – all with their very distinct policing needs.
Senior officers have taken a number of practical steps to bring policing back into the heart of the local community. Over the years, the force has built close working relationships with local communities and a variety if important third party organisations and agencies, who are all committed to fighting crime. As you can understand, this work requires the officers and support staff of Leicestershire Constabulary to continuously listen to – and understand – the voice of the public.
And that’s where CRT played a critical role.
The challenge
Leicestershire Constabulary wanted to capture and assess the views of local people about the range of services it provides.
Historically the force conducted expensive mystery shopping exercises and contacted people directly by telephone – usually by outsourcing this critical engagement work to third parties and purchasing costly contact lists.
Leicestershire also telephoned visitors to its police stations across the county. These people were all voluntary visitors, such as victims of crime – and the Constabulary wanted to ensure that its Local Policing Units were communicating effectively with all of its key stakeholders.
The solution
CRT’s ViewPoint Touch Screen and instant feedback software was located in the entrance halls and waiting areas of six police stations across the county – and a survey was designed for collecting public opinion on the service and environment in which visitors were dealt with.
The flexibility of CRT’s survey Touch Screens enabled the force to rotate devices around county police stations and local retail outlets, in a bid to determine community attitudes to Local Policing Units and council services.
CRT’s Touch Screens collected feedback from a broad cross-section of the community. On average each station obtained 100 responses over a 10-day period. Placements in supermarkets generated significantly higher response rates.
The feedback was analysed immediately using CRT’s online ViewPoint Research Control Suite. This gave Leicestershire Constabulary the evidence they needed to be able to instigate an appropriate Change program.
Key benefits
- Time effective compared to previous telephone surveys
- Cost effective compared to purchase of contact lists and mystery shoppers
- Secures feedback from a broader cross-section of the community
- Anonymity improved honesty and response levels
- Hassle free plug-and-play touch screens
- Paper free environmentally friendly research
- Immediate reporting of results