October 24, 2014
Eighty Percent of Citizens Believe More Digital Tools Can Improve Police Services, According to Accenture Survey
Gap exists between citizen expectations and police use of digital tools
Gap exists between citizen expectations and police use of digital tools
ORLANDO, Fla.; Oct.24, 2014 – Eight-out-of-10 citizens surveyed by Accenture (NYSE:ACN) believe expanded use of new and advanced digital tools would improve police services. Specifically, they are comfortable with police officers using: predictive technologies (88 percent), security cameras (83 percent), wearable technologies, such as body-worn cameras, (80 percent) and mobile devices (89 percent).
Following a similar 2012 research survey by Accenture, the 2014 survey shows that 96 percent of those surveyed believe the public has a role to play in police services, and 78 percent see crime reporting as a key responsibility for citizens. The Accenture Citizen Pulse Survey on Policing 2014 was conducted in August 2014 among 4,000 people in eight countries (learn more Research and Insights and Infographic).
According to the survey, 88 percent of citizens believe digital technologies can aid crime investigation and criminal apprehension and that police should use digital channels such as social media, mobile devices such as smartphones and wearable cameras, websites and other online tools to help collect information about specific cases.
More than three-quarters (77 percent) believe digital technology can help prevent crime and want police to use digital channels to communicate with them, but only 42 percent report their police actually doing so. Additionally, more than 70 percent believe local police services should use digital channels more to communicate and engage with citizens and 88 percent say digital technologies can give police a way to ask the public for information about specific cases.
“This survey shows that citizens believe that digital tools – such as mobile devices and wearable cameras – together with predictive analytics-based technologies can have a positive impact on crime by helping identify where crime might occur and how best to deploy police, “ said Ger Daly, who leads Accenture’s global Defense & Public Safety business. “It also shows that while nearly all citizens want to actively help police prevent, detect and fight crime, there is a gap between what digital tools citizens expect police to use, and what police actually use.”
Social Media
The most significant shift in citizen expectations between the 2012 and 2014 surveys was an increase in the demand for digital channels for interacting with police, which was up from 20 percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 2014. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of respondents in the current survey said today they are more willing to engage with their local police via social media than they were a year ago. For citizens willing to engage with police via social media, Facebook remains the preferred channel (85 percent in 2014 compared to 81 percent 2012), followed by Twitter, which had the most growth (up to 42 percent from 35 percent) and YouTube (up to 26 percent from 19 percent).
More than eight-out-of-ten (86 percent) say that digital technology can open up communication channels between citizens and their police force. Of those who want more interaction with their police force, 79 percent say they want more digital interaction (via social media, email or websites) – perhaps indicating that they believe digital technologies can bridge the communication gap between police and citizens. Moreover, 69 percent of citizens believe social media can improve police services – up from 53 percent in 2012.
Citizens’ perceptions of social media usage by police have gone up from 13 percent in 2012 to 24 percent in 2014. However, a gap still exists between citizen expectations and the use of digital social media channels by police.
Perception Gaps Still Exist
Two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents want more interaction with their local police, and 79 percent of those are specifically interested in more digital interaction. The percentage of citizens who believe that their local police force currently uses digital channels has more than doubled in the last two years – to 42 percent in 2014 from 20 percent in 2012. Despite the perceived increase in digital usage by police, 77 percent of respondents to the 2014 survey said that police should use digital, which indicates a gap of 35 percentage points between citizen expectations of the use of digital by police and their perceptions about current digital usage.
The survey responses identified additional insights into the perception gaps:
- Twenty percent of citizen respondents believe that the police currently use websites or Web portals to communicate, but 46 percent of them believe police should be using the Web;
- Thirteen percent said their local police are using smartphones or apps, but 34 percent who believe the police should be using those tools; and
- Twenty-four percent of respondents said the police use social media – such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube – but 42 percent believe they should.
In 2012, only five percent of respondents perceived that police are using smartphone apps to interact with citizens; in 2014, that number increased eight percentage points to 13 percent. Meanwhile, citizen demand for smartphone apps has risen from 23 percent in 2012 to 34 percent in 2014 with nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of respondents saying they would use a mobile app created by their local police force to report crimes or obtain information about crimes.
“These results show that citizen perception of both the use of smartphone apps by police and citizen demand for smartphone apps connecting them to the police have increased – which indicates an opportunity for police to increase their use of these types of digital interactions to meet citizen expectations, and engage and interact more effectively with them,” added Daly.
Reporting Crime and Neighborhood Policing
Citizens still prefer traditional methods of reporting crime, but their enthusiasm for the traditional methods is decreasing. If they had to choose one form of interaction with police, over half (51 percent) of the respondents in 2014 – said they prefer to interact with police via the telephone compared to 59 percent in 2012. Further, the preference of interacting with police in person was down to 19 percent in 2014 from 22 percent in 2012. In contrast, Internet and website use as a preferred method of reporting crimes and other incidents has more than doubled from 4 percent in 2012 to 9 percent in 2014.
Despite citizens’ growing desire for more digital interaction with police, neighborhood policing remains important: 63 percent say they would like a neighborhood police contact. Three-quarters of all respondents (76 percent) who do not currently have a community police force contact want one – up from 62 percent in 2012.
“Citizens see digital as a real crime-fighting tool that can prevent as well as detect crimes,”James Slessor it is not enough for police simply to provide digital channels for citizens to engage. In order for police community education to advance understanding about how these new digital tools, such as mobile apps and social media, will be used.”
U.S. Findings
U.S. citizens feel safe and see their police as effective:
- 84 percent of U.S. citizens say they feel safe in their neighborhood
- 86 percent rate their local police force as effective
- 80 percent rank preventing crime as the top service they want their police to provide, ahead of neighborhood safety (73 percent) and investigating and catching criminals (78 percent)
- 75 percent say the public should play a role in crime reporting
- 73 percent say the public should participate in neighborhood watch programs
- 68 percent of those without one currently say they would like a community or neighborhood contact within the police force
- 65 percent say they would like more interaction with the police in general
- 74 percent say the police should interact with the public via some type of digital means, although only 44 percent say the police currently interact with the public in a digital way
- Today, 66 percent are more willing to engage with the police via social media then they were a year ago, and 66 percent would use a mobile app created by the police to obtain information about or report crimes
About the Survey
The 2014 online citizen survey included 4,000 respondents (global margin of error ±1.55), across eight countries, with approximately 500 respondents each from Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States (margin of error ±4.38 per country). Data comparisons from 2012 to 2014 are based on the full set of countries in each wave. Even when accounting for variations in the markets between the two waves, patterns in the data show consistent year-over-year trends.
The survey age categories represented include 30 percent between 18 years and 34 years of age 37 percent between 35 and 54 years of age and 32 percent who were more than 55 years old. Fifty-one percent of respondents were female and 49 percent were male when the survey was conducted by Penn Schoen Berland in August 2014. Learn more about The Accenture Citizen Pulse Survey on Policing 2014 and Infographic.
Learn more about Accenture’s global Defense & Public Safety Industry and Delivering Public Service for the Future.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 305,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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