The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Suffolk Constabulary and county, district and borough councils across Suffolk, working together through the Safer Stronger Communities Board, are launching a new countywide public perception survey in July 2026.
The survey will provide partners with high-quality, actionable data regarding community safety, public confidence, and local priorities. The survey is aligned to the Crime Survey for England and Wales which gives Suffolk the ability to compare against national responses relating to crime and disorder. Telephone-based interviews will be carried out with a small number of targeted face-to-face interviews to ensure we get a representative sample of our communities.
The primary goals are to:
- Enhance Data Accuracy: Provide statistically robust data (reaching 5,000–7,000 residents annually) broken down by district, demographic, and socioeconomic groupings.
- Enable Evidence-Based Interventions: Integrate this survey data with existing intelligence through the Suffolk Office of Data Analytics (SODA) to allow for smarter, multi-agency operational planning.
- Test and Learn: Use year two to deploy targeted, low-cost interventions to test our ability to shift public perception in specific communities based on findings from year one.
- Foster Collaboration: Work in closer partnership with the Police, Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs), and the local communities to test interventions.
Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore said:
“Suffolk is a safe county, and we can make it even safer by understanding in more detail the issues that most concern our communities.
“This targeted public perception survey, funded by the councils through business rates, will help us direct crime prevention activity and understand what impact this activity is having on our communities.
“By working together, this survey will provide all of us with better insight to understand and target activity in a way that we couldn’t achieve working alone.”
The survey, which is being carried out independently by SMSR Research, was trialled in June 2026 and the full survey will start in July. Results of the surveys will be available to the SSCB and Community Safety Partnerships as well as SODA for use in local needs assessments and to inform local strategy development.