A further two in five say crime in their local area has increased over the last few years
New YouGov research shows that there is currently little faith among ethnic minority Britons in the police to deal with local crime, with half saying they don’t have much (31%) or any confidence (19%). Around two in five have either a lot (5%) or a fair (33%) level of confidence.
Half (53%) of Asian respondents of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage possess little to no faith in the police locally, compared to 41% of Black respondents.
This lack of faith in the police force coincides with 41% overall saying that crime has gone up in their local area in recent years. Three in ten (30%) think it has remained consistent while only 10% say it has gone down.
A further 50% also think crime has increased nationally over the last few years. A quarter (23%) believe it has stayed the same while 9% think it has fallen.
According to national tracker data, ethnic minority Britons are much less likely to think crime has risen than the wider population, 69% of whom think that crime across the country has gone up in recent years. When it comes to perceptions of crime locally, opinion among the wider public is similar to the ethnic minority population, with 43% thinking crime has increased in their local area.
Crime has grown in importance as a national issue for ethnic minority Britons: as of mid-April one in five (20%) considered this an important issue, an increase of eight points since December 2022. This is tied fourth with tax (20%) but follows the economy (56%), health (36%) and housing (25%).
On a national level, 18% of all Britons consider crime an important issue, again falling far behind many other areas such as the economy (59%), health (42%), immigration (37%) and the environment (21%).
See the full ethnic minority results here
All-public results are drawn from the following trackers:
