Annual neighbourhood feelings of safety perception survey (2007)
Contact officer: Sandra Roscoe, Community Safety
Tel: 0151 225 4851
Email: Sandra.Roscoe@liverpool.gov.uk
Start date: 1 April 2007
End date: 4 June 2007
Purpose of the exercise:
To ascertain residents' views about feelings of safety within their neighbourhoods.
Who was consulted and how:
Face-to-face interviews and a postal survey were used with a sample of Liverpool residents across all neighbourhoods.
Who were the results of the exercise reported to:
The results were reported to Citysafe, Liverpool's crime and disorder reduction partnership
What were the findings of the exercise:
The key findings of the exercise were as follows:
- almost everyone, 90%, feels safe in their neighbourhood during the day, this falls during the evening to 62%, with a further fall to 48% at night, although these figures have improved since the 2006 survey
- the neighbourhoods with the lowest feelings of safety are Liverpool South (daytime), Alt Valley (evening) and Liverpool East and Alt Valley (night)
- the top three things that make people feel unsafe are 'young people hanging around', 'low police presence' and 'cars driving too fast'
- one in three people fear becoming a victim of crime, with this fear being the highest in the Alt Valley and the lowest in South Central neighbourhoods
- one in five people have experienced crime, which is an improvement on the 2006 survey. This experience of crime is highest in Alt Valley. Most people who have experienced crime, have had it happen to them only once. However, although the number experiencing violent crime is low, the survey results suggested that this type of crime is occurring on more than one occasion to its victims.
What are the changes to the service brought about as a result of the consultation:
A workshop was held with neighbourhood partners to disseminate the findings of the survey and to develop a series of appropriate interventions targeted at the neighbourhoods and vulnerable communities identified by the survey. Following on from the workshop, the findings of the survey were presented to the Citysafe board (Liverpool's crime and disorder reduction partnership) and the five neighbourhood partnership working groups (one for each of the five neighbourhood areas) between November 2007 and January 2008. The neighbourhood partnership working groups will use this information to create focussed action to enable them to increase feelings of safety within their areas.