Informed decision-making, community engagement and participation workstream report

3. Overview

3.1 There is a high level of public and stakeholder interest in policing, whether it be visibility, approaches to policing in communities, the introduction of new operational policing tools or how our policing model adapts to serve the public in an increasingly digital, interconnected world. These areas are all subject to scrutiny, oversight, inspection and review by a range of bodies from Scottish Parliamentary Committees, Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) where high standards are being set to work closely with stakeholders, the public and communities to develop the future public services that policing will provide. This includes a range of important considerations such as understanding the views of the public and communities, human rights, ensuring the right assessments are undertaken, such as EQHRIA, and all appropriate mitigations, such as Codes of Conduct, are in place.

3.2 Police Scotland has made significant progress to develop accessible, inclusive and meaningful approaches to public engagement and act on the insights they provide. In the coming period there is likely to be an increasing level of demand to engage positively and proactively with the public and stakeholders on a number of important changes in policing. The Strategy, Insight and Engagement service within Police Scotland is growing and supporting different approaches to insight, engagement and public participation – and this report will further enhance this work. We know that through high-quality public engagement it is possible to explore complex areas with an understanding of trade-offs^[1]; this increases the chances of success when introducing appropriate technology that keeps people safe, with appropriate mitigations in place for both the public and police.

3.3 The informed decision-making, community engagement and participation work stream focused on the following key areas:

3.3.1 The role of consultation and public engagement to support policing legitimacy and consent as new and emerging technologies are considered that lead to changes in the operational model for policing in Scotland.

3.3.2 A wide range of evidence and best practice for engagement, consultation and consideration of insights, leading to the development of future focused, relevant and meaningful approaches for policing.

3.3.3 To design and develop a proactive, inclusive and accessible framework for public involvement that will enable policing to collaborate with the public and communities in an ongoing dialogue to understand views and concerns, support to explore complexity, and matters of consent to inform proposals for the introduction of new technology. This will draw on best practice and pilot emerging approaches, such as deliberative democratic processes with communities.

3.3.4 To identify where there are opportunities to move beyond consultation and engagement towards a more participative model for community involvement in the decision-making processes surrounding emerging technologies – moving up the Ladder of Participation^[2] towards sharing power; co-producing future models with communities. In line with key strategic drivers such as Open Government, Community Empowerment Act (part 10), National Performance Framework, the ongoing development of a Scottish Participation Framework and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child implementation into domestic law.

3.3.5 Through opportunities to drive this work, in relation to 2.3.4, the membership of the work stream will advise on design options which are meaningful, innovative within a policing context and solution-focused.

3.3.6 Assess what expertise may be required for the above core focus areas to be delivered in full; for example, working with specialists in the design and delivery of community engagement activities using emerging approaches in citizen participation, engagement and democracy.

3.4 Police Scotland: Strategy, Insight and Engagement

3.5 Police Scotland's Strategy, Insight and Engagement service is responsible for designing, building, managing and maintaining high-quality activities which involve the public, communities and partners.^[3]

3.6 During the period since 2019, the service has grown organisational capacity and maturity in this area and since 2020 we have seen large numbers of people take part in major surveys and engagement activities; making Police Scotland's public engagement process more robust and representative, whilst being led by research and engagement best practice through in-house expertise.

3.7 Approximately 59,400 responses were received from surveys in 2021 on public confidence, user experience, support provided to survivors or victims of crime, events and protests, including a significant public engagement exercise on the use of Body Worn Video. A further 26 surveys were conducted by business areas on service-specific themes for internal audiences.

3.8 The service sought to further enhance its reach to diverse communities through making surveys accessible in British Sign Language (BSL), Easy Read and by using inclusive non-stigmatising language. A series of focus groups, interviews and workshops were carried out to understand the lived experiences and perceptions of diverse communities of different age groups for informing the use of Body Worn Video and emerging technology in policing.