Community safety survey 2023: How can we make Buckinghamshire safer?

Closed 29 Oct 2023

Opened 11 Sep 2023

Feedback updated 28 May 2024

We asked

Every year, the Safer Buckinghamshire Board runs a survey to understand community safety concerns from the past 12 month, including: 

  • the impact of crime and anti-social behaviour in your area 
  • your experience of reporting crimes 
  • how safe or unsafe you feel 

The survey ran from 11 September to 29 October 2023.

You said

We received 872 online responses.  

We asked if crime and anti-social behaviour had impacted you in the past 12 months: 

  • Fraud was report as the crime impacting the most:  
    • 94 respondents had been directly affected by fraud 
    • 127 respondents had witnessed fraud 
  • Criminal damage had the second most impact: 
    • 31 respondents had been victims of criminal damage 
    • 80 respondents had witnessed criminal damage 
  • Cybercrime had the second most victims: 
    • 35 respondents had been victims 
    • 71 respondents had witnessed cybercrime 

We asked if you have any other community safety concerns where you live, work or study: 

  • Lack of police presence was the highest concern identified  
  • Anti-social driving, including speeding and racing 
  • Drugs including drug use and drug litter 

We asked about your experience of reporting crime: 

  • 298 of respondents had been a victim of crime in the last 12 months 
  • 32% (95) of respondents did not report that they had been a victim of crime 
  • of the respondents that had been a victim of crime but did not report it: 
    • 28% believed there was little chance of catching the perpetrator 
    • 19% believed it was too trivial to report 
    • 12% believed it was a waste of time to report it  
    • 12% had a previous bad experience of the police

We asked how safe or unsafe you feel in your local area, in town centres, and in parks and open spaces in the daylight and after dark: 

Of the respondents that answered these questions: 

  • 88% felt safe outside in the daylight, alone 
  • 47% felt safe outside in the dark, alone 
  • 85% felt safe in the town centres in the daylight 
  • 31% felt safe in town centres after dark 
  • 84% felt safe in parks in the daylight 
  • 21% felt safe in parks after dark 

We did

As outlined in The Safer Buckinghamshire Strategy 2023 - 2026, our intention is for Buckinghamshire to be one of the safest places to grow up, raise a family, live, work and do business. 

To support this, we have five partnership priorities: 

  • neighbourhood crime – working in partnership to tackle crime hotspots and raise awareness of fraud, scams and cybercrime 
  • anti-social behaviour – tackling repeat victimisation and encouraging reporting as well as working with partners to address concerns 
  • serious violence – raising awareness and supporting early intervention / prevention for young people at risk 
  • violence against women and girls – education and training of professionals to increase awareness and increasing confidence in reporting 
  • exploitation of vulnerable people – identifying places where there is an exploitation risk and making sure communities can recognise the signs and report concerns 

The priorities focus on known causes of crime and concerns of people in Buckinghamshire. Each priority has a partnership action plan – to reduce crime and increase community safety.  

In March 2024, the findings of the community safety survey were presented to the Safer Buckinghamshire Board. Your views will help partners to shape these actions plans for the coming year, to ensure we are focussing our efforts on the issues that matter to those that live, work and study in Buckinghamshire. 

More information about each priority, and how the partnership will deliver them, is in the Safer Buckinghamshire Strategy 2023 to 2026

Overview

Buckinghamshire Council logoSafer Buckinghamshire Partnership logo

We want to know the community safety concerns where you live or work to help us reduce crime.

If you are a young person, or know a young person who would like to tell us their views, see our young people’s survey at Youth Voice Bucks.

The Safer Buckinghamshire Board is the local community safety partnership that brings together experts from the police, fire service, probation, health and social care services.

Safer Buckinghamshire

We recently launched the Safer Buckinghamshire Strategy 2023 to 2026. It sets out 5 priorities to reduce crime and increase community safety up to 2026:

Safer Buckinghamshire Strategy priorities

Neighbourhood crime – working in partnership to tackle crime hotspots and raise awareness of fraud, scams and cybercrime

Anti-social behaviour – tackling repeat victimisation and encouraging reporting as well as working with partners to address concerns

Serious violence – raising awareness and supporting early intervention / prevention for young people at risk

Violence against women and girls – education and training of professionals to increase awareness and increasing confidence in reporting

Exploitation of vulnerable people – identifying places where there is an exploitation risk and making sure communities can recognise the signs and report concerns

These priorities come from your responses to last year’s community safety survey, a strategic assessment of community safety and other insight.

The Safer Buckinghamshire Board works with local partners and communities to understand concerns and deliver the 5 priorities.

To help do this, we want to know your community safety concerns from the past 12 months:

  • the impact of crime and anti-social behaviour in your area
  • your experience of reporting crimes
  • how safe or unsafe you feel in Buckinghamshire

We want to hear from people living, studying and / or working in Buckinghamshire.

How to report crime and anti-social behaviour

The responses to this survey are anonymous. We cannot identify you or contact you about anything you say in this survey.

If you are affected by crime or anti-social behaviour, please report it:

How to have your say

You can tell us your views in one of the following ways:

You can enter in a prize draw to win one of three £100 Leisure Vouchers at the end of the survey. Full terms and conditions for entering the prize draw (PDF 0.14MB).

If you have any questions about this activity, please email us at sbp@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

Please tell us your views by midnight on Sunday 29 October 2023.

What happens next

In March 2024, the Safer Buckinghamshire Board will decide the next 12 months of partnership activities to help reduce crime. These will come from:

  • your response to this survey – impact of crime and anti-social behaviour as well as where you feel safe or unsafe
  • a review of crime and community safety data – to help make sure we continue to focus on crimes with the highest risk of harm

Privacy

We will use the information you provide here only for this activity. We will store the information securely in line with data protection laws and will not share or publish any personal details. For more information about data and privacy, please see our Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about data and privacy, please email us on dataprotection@buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Or write to our Data Protection Officer at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF.

Areas

  • Amersham
  • Aylesbury
  • Beaconsfield and Chepping Wye
  • Beeches
  • Buckingham and Villages
  • Chesham and Villages
  • Denham, Gerrards Cross and Chalfonts
  • Haddenham and Waddesdon
  • High Wycombe
  • Missendens
  • North West Chilterns
  • South West Chilterns
  • Wendover
  • Wexham and Ivers
  • Wing and Ivinghoe
  • Winslow and Villages

Interests

  • Communities
  • Crime & community safety