Building Bridges, Safer Communities: Peer research report
This report captures learning from one stage of the ‘Building Bridges, Safer Communities’ project about community safety and policing in Liverpool – in this case, the peer research conducted by Revolving Doors.
Peer research was conducted to shine a light on what feeling safe means to people in Merseyside—with a focus on the City of Liverpool and Birkenhead— and what people felt the police’s role should be in helping people feel safer.
Research themes were defined in part from initial polling conducted across Merseyside with Opinium, by perceived gaps in existing knowledge, and where local stakeholders such as the police, local authorities and others, felt more information would be most valuable. This included a specific focus on the ‘revolving door’ cohort of people caught up in a cycle of crisis and crime because of unmet health and social needs, and what impacts their perceptions of safety. A reason for this was our expertise in engaging with this group and, in our experience, the high levels of mistrust of authorities which can make successful engagement with them more difficult.
The Opinium poll took place online between 18 and 27 January 2023 and focused on public safety and policing in Merseyside. Over 1,500 people responded from across all five boroughs. Where relevant, findings from the polling are explored within this report in relation to the peer research findings.
