Police rate highly for satisfaction

OLDHAM police has scored highly in a survey of how satisfied victims of crime are with officers’ response.

The borough rated in at least the top five divisions out of 12, and above the force average for all categories surveyed.

The results were split into five groups, with Greater Manchester Police having 90.8 per cent of victims completely, very or fairly satisfied with their first contact with police.

In terms of action the police took, 76.5 per cent were satisfied, as were 69.6 per cent with how they were kept informed, 91.5 per cent with how they were treated, and 80.9 per cent with the overall service.

In Oldham, those completely or very satisfied were 2.1 per cent above the force average of 74 per cent for first contact.

It was 1.3 per cent ahead on action taken (force average 60.2), 2.6 per cent up on being kept informed (52.6), 1.5 per cent on treatment (77.3) and 0.5 per cent on the whole experience (64.7)

Across the force, victim satisfaction is up by a few percentage points on last year for every category.

Practice

The £63,000 User Satisfaction Survey was carried out with victims of domestic burglary, violent crime, vehicle crime, racist incidents and road collisions between April, 2007, and March, 2008.

The initiative was introduced by the Home Office in 2004 to ensure the police were listening and responding to the views of people who call on their services.

The most important aspects given to satisfy victims included reassurance, the matter being dealt with in reasonable time, the victim being informed without asking and quickly, and questions answered adequately.

Staff should also take personal matters into account, always take the matter seriously and appear interested.

Greater Manchester Police says implementing a Victims’ Code of Practice and developing a Citizen Focus agenda will boost satisfaction rates further.