Trust is the Key
Kaitlin Dryburgh
A report by the Scottish Policing Authority has found that in this last quarter trust and confidence in the Police Service has fallen once again. Overall it was found that on average 5.84 people out of ten had trust in the police in their local area, while only 5.66 had trust in Police Service overall. Just slightly over half now put their trust in the police. This has fallen in a short amount of time, in January when the same question was asked 6.04 people in ten believed they had trust in the Police Service overall.
When similar questions were asked surrounding confidence in the Police much the same declines were apparent. In fact only 34% of respondents felt they had high confidence in the police to keep their local areas safe. Which is a sad reality to live in, if only a third truly have confidence in the police to protect them.
Police Scotland face many challenges, internally and externally. From recent news reports that we seem to be at the mercy of shoplifters and the police are too under-staffed to attend to call-outs. From some department stores such as John Lewis offering free hot drinks to on-duty police officers, as an act of deterring shoplifters, to a statement from the new Police Scotland chief constable stating that the service is institutionally racist, police forces all over the UK often get tarred with the same brush, and with the Metropolitan Police Service in the news every other week with another scandal, the public image of the police is plummeting.
Yet they aren’t alone, other public services and institutions are experiencing the same troubling figures.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the UK government experience trust issues lower than the OECD average. Research from the Office for National Statistics in 2022 found that a dismal 35% of the UK population trusted the Government. There's a list as long as your arm for the many things this current government has done to destroy public trust. From the lies and deceit during Covid, the Partygate scandal, the merry-go-round of Prime Ministers, self-imploding budgets, and backtracking, that doesn't even consider the terrible policy decisions made. In the last couple of years it seems that the UK government have been making every effort to destroy the trust between themselves and the public, solidifying a distrust of politicians and making it harder for any genuine level-headed and dedicated politician to prove that they have good intentions.
When someone such as Suella Braverman announces to everyone that we should expect a “hurricaine of migrants” coming to the UK and speculates that there are several cases of asylum seekers and immigrants who fake being gay in order to stay in the UK, this plants the seed of mistrust. Fearmongering and lies aimed at a group in society does anything but create social cohesion and trust.
The Scottish Government experiences higher trust and confidence levels from the public. With 30% agreeing that they just about always trust the government to work in the best interest of Scotland and 36% of respondents believing this happens most of the time. Yet only 13% believed that they could trust the Scottish government to make fair decisions, however more people responded by saying they had some sort of trust than none at all. Fairness and equality is so important to a solid social cohesion, so perhaps this is a more telling figure.
Having trust is imperative to our ‘happiness’ but more specifically our social cohesion. Social cohesion refers to the amount of solidarity felt within society: it's demographic in nature and values community and equality among peers. To have full social cohesion would mean there are no fractures in society brought about by populist thinking or a society that favours one group more than the others. Perhaps we don’t hug everyone we meet at the supermarket because we’re just so happy to be in their presence nor when we reflect on our own lives, do we feel pure happiness when we think about the people we don’t know. We instead feel content that the community acts as one, no one is left out and if for some reason our life takes a turn for the worse, the services etc are there to help us, the same services and help which are afforded to everyone.
If we are experiencing lower levels of trust and confidence in the police, that could say a lot about how we feel in our communities. Our ability to feel safe in our communities really would affect both our social cohesion and happiness. To be able to trust the people who are supposed to be protecting you really does allow for a society and community to come together. It allows you to have brighter outlook to your surroundings.
Trust and confidence in public service, authorities and those in charge are essential for public cohesion. Even trusting your neighbour or those in your communities makes everything function so much better, it makes for a more contented life. If we look to the Scandinavian countries, something that happens quite often, it is evident that they have high trust in their government and other institutions and that this contributes to their countries often being proclaimed the ‘happiest in the world’. OECD findings show that countries such as Norway and Finland have over 60% high or moderately high trust in their government. Not only that, Finland consistently hits around 93% of their population trusting the police. That means they spend a lot less time worrying or being concerned with potential crime, allowing for trust within the community to flourish.
Trust and social cohesion is linked to successful aspects in a country such as improved health, economic growth, tolerance, and charity within the community.
Yet once again examining the most trusting and happiest countries in the world, those with high levels of democracy and low corruption also scored fairly high in these areas. Living in a fair society where you believe your voice is both heard and equal to your fellow peers is an important aspect of being content within your community and further afield. But having democracy doesn’t automatically make you a ‘happy nation', absolutely not. In fact in a sense the opposite is true, a country that is trusting with levels of social cohesion often create highly democratic countries. Again looking at Scandinavian countries as the winners in this category: they have high levels of local democracy, and less centralisation. Scotland has a grand total of 32 councils and Finland (which shares a population of similar size) has 309. Countries like Finland have shared and devolved a lot of power to their local municipalities which provides them more autonomy over local decisions. Local areas which are empowered produce higher citizen participation, they’re often more transparent and accessible, and as such are more trusting. Which just adds to the lovely cycle of social cohesion.
An injustice is a collective problem, it requires a collective solution. That’s why the phrase “we’re all in this together” is so comforting. Trust is a collective quality and it begins begins at the very top, and at the bottom. From those in government and those in charge of our everyday institutions, and in communities among your peers, neighbours, and colleagues. Yet that being said, trusting what’s new is important and developing a society which pioneers trusting and social cohesion is a must. Trust is often a by product of respect, have we always felt respected by the police and vice versa. In the past several years both governments (more specifically the UK) have shown in some way or another there is a lack of respect there. Be that towards the position that they hold and to the people that they serve. For a steadier and cohesive society it is imperative that we build more meaningful trust.