Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner defends £40k survey on public trust

At the Police and Crime Panel on September 16, the PCC told councillors that his office and Bedfordshire Police had jointly commissioned polling company More In Common to carry out the work.

He said the research would provide far more reliable and representative data than the surveys his office had run since May 2024.

“By employing more in common we get an independent organisation… to actually ask the right questions to the right communities”, he said.

“This will give us a much truer picture than we could ever get from our own surveys.

“We will get data which will break down trust and confidence but also wider issues around policing, by geography, demographics, ethnicity, age.

“And that’s going to be really important for setting our strategy, but even more important for the police in their deployments of resources.”

Mr Tizard stressed it was a joint venture with the police, adding: “This is more than a survey – I and the Chief Constable believe this is worthwhile.”

But Central Bedfordshire councillor Mark Versaiilkon questioned the “optics” of spending taxpayers’ money on the polling.

“Given how hard pressed everybody is, every organisation and every family is,” he said, “Is £40,000 on a survey really the best use of taxpayers money when actually we should probably be cutting expenditure?”

He added that shows a “culture of public sector unaccountability” and perhaps the “wrong priorities”.

Luton councillor Basit Mahmood voiced support for the initiative, saying that the sum was hardly likely to “crash the economy” compared with the policies of a former prime minister.

After the meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the commissioner whether repeated surveys and consultations risked looking like dithering instead of taking action.

Mr Tizard said the polling was “much more than a survey” and would help sharpen policing priorities rather than delay them.

“Far from delaying action, it will enable a sharper focus on what will have the biggest impact for residents across the county and what they want from the police service,” he said.

“The poll was jointly commissioned with Bedfordshire Police and will ensure both the Police and the OPCC [Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner] have independent demographic data, that means we can match resources closely against need.

“It will enable better evidence police strategy as well as providing independent analysis of the level of confidence and trust in policing in Bedfordshire.

“Strong evidence is essential to making responsible and effective decisions about community safety and crime prevention. This is something that neither my office nor the police could undertake,” he said.

He added that the contract with More In Common had been published on the PCC’s website and that he had answered questions on the spending at the panel meeting.