ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on trends in public confidence in the police and in police legitimacy. The last two decades have seen a number of institutional changes in the Metropolitan Police relating to: systems of legal accountability; systems of managerial or financial accountability; policing style and priorities; and organizational structure. The chapter examines the 20-year trends in crime, trends in public satisfaction and trends in public confidence and deals with an analysis of the 'drivers' of public confidence in the police. It explores that the 'modernization' of policing, with its emphasis on quantitative targets, has been skewing the police function in a way that has eroded public confidence. The chapter reviews trends in public confidence in police effectiveness and views about police integrity, taking in both those who have and have not had contact with the police. The Policing for London study and the British Crime Survey can provide long-run trends in Londoners' views of police effectiveness.
