Nearly half of Londoners see crime rising in their area

We asked Londoners about the prevalence of six types of crime in their area. For four of these six, the most common response Londoners gave was that crime had increased in their area.

The kinds of crime that Londoners most commonly said had increased in their area were anti-social behaviour (45 per cent), knife crime (44 per cent) and drug-related crime (42 per cent).

People living in inner London were more likely than those in outer London to say they had seen an increase in drug-related crime (49 per cent vs 38 per cent), hate crime (40 per cent vs 30 per cent), and street harassment (38 per cent vs 30 per cent).

Meanwhile, men were more likely than women to report that street harassment had decreased in their area (18 per cent vs 12 per cent).

We also asked about the prevalence of rough sleeping, which 75 per cent of people said had either increased (45 per cent) or stayed the same (30 per cent). More people in inner London had seen an increase than those in outer London (50 per cent vs 41 per cent).

Many Londoners report feeling unsafe in London at night, particularly women

Londoners report feeling more unsafe at night than during the day. Of the places we asked about, they reported feeling least safe in their local park (52 per cent felt unsafe at night) and while taking the tube or bus (36 per cent).

Slightly fewer Londoners reported feeling safe, and slightly more reported feeling unsafe, this year than last year.

Women were considerably more likely than men to report feeling unsafe: for example, 63 per cent of women reported feeling unsafe in their local park at night compared to 41 per cent of men.

Londoners support a range of measures to improve women and girls’ safety

We asked Londoners whether they would support or oppose a number of measures to improve women’s safety.

The measures with the broadest support included making violence against women and girls a hate crime (45 per cent), introducing respect and consent training in schools (43 per cent), and focusing more police resource on improving women and girls’ safety (41 per cent). Overall support for the most popular measure has decreased slightly since 2022 when 50 per cent of Londoners were in favour.

Public sentiment toward the police has slightly worsened

We asked Londoners about the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of positive statements about the police. Overall, public sentiment toward the police looks like it has slightly worsened since this time last year.

The statements which most people disagreed with were that the police can be relied on to deal with minor crimes (42 per cent disagree vs 31 per cent agree), the police would treat everyone fairly regardless of who they are (38 per cent disagree vs 34 per cent agree), and the police provide good value for money (29 per cent disagree vs 33 per cent agree)

Compared to our last survey in March 2022, the proportion of Londoners who agree that the police provide good value for money fell by 5 percentage points, from 38 per cent to 33 per cent. Over the same period, the proportion of Londoners who agree that the police are committed to serving the public fell by 5 percentage points, from 53 per cent to 48 per cent.

When asked whether the police would treat everyone fairly regardless of who they are, women were more likely than men to disagree (44 per cent vs 32 per cent) while white people were less likely to disagree than people from all other ethnic groups (35 per cent vs 42 per cent).

A fifth of Londoners would advise against joining the Met Police

We asked what advice respondents would give to a friend or close family member who was considering becoming a Met Police officer.

Approximately half (47 per cent) of the Londoners we surveyed said that they would support their friend or family member to join, but 21 per cent said that they would advise against this decision.

Men were more likely than women to say they would support their friend or family member (50 per cent vs 44 per cent), while white people were more likely than people from all other ethnicities to say the same (52 per cent vs 40 per cent).

People intending to vote Conservative were more likely than those intending to vote for other major parties to say they would support their friend or family member (65 per cent).

Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ Londoners were more likely than heterosexual Londoners to say they would advise their friend or family member against joining the Met (29 per cent vs 21 per cent).