SPSS - UK Customers

Greater Manchester Police

Using SPSS Inc. technology to establish a community based policing programme

The situation

Formed in 1974, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has a workforce of over 7,000 police officers and 3,500 support staff. Serving some two and a half million people, and covering an area of 500 square miles comprising ten metropolitan boroughs, GMP is one of the largest police forces in the UK.

Consultation is a statutory function of GMP, and is ongoing throughout the year. The Police Authority's Consultative Team (PACT) is responsible for drawing up consultation plans for each local area and reporting on community concerns, safety, and perception of crime and disorder. The police authority also organises youth forums in a number of schools throughout Greater Manchester, bringing together young people and local police officers with the aim of improving communication, liaison, and relations.

The critical issue

Working in the St. Mary's and Failsworth West Wards of Oldham Metropolitan Borough as part of the National Reassurance Project, a survey to 9,000 households was undertaken to establish a community‑based policing program centred on the identification of ‘signal crime’.

Before implementing an analytical solution from SPSS Inc., all that the police had was a low-level paper system with poor analytical functionality – using Microsoft® Excel® proved unfruitful due to its limited analytical capabilities. Keith Bentley, former Superintendent, Operations at Oldham Division, explains: "The non-automated data input procedure proved too resource‑hungry. We wanted a solution that would not only find answers to questions that basic database and spreadsheet packages would miss, but also to make the IBM SPSS Data Collection Data Entry faster and more reliable."

The solution

Already aware that SPSS Inc. had over 35 years of experience in implementing and analysing surveys, and had completed similar projects for other police forces up and down the country, GMP decided to adopt the SPSS analytical solution.

By using sophisticated SPSS Inc. software such as IBM SPSS Data Collection Paper, QuanQuest, IBM SPSS Data Collection Scan, the flagship desktop analysis package IBM SPSS Statistics Base*, and IBM SPSS Regression*, the police hoped that a wide range of public views on policing in the area would be gathered and incorporated into the National Reassurance Project. The questionnaires were seamlessly created within the system, and the responses were all scanned in electronically to eliminate the need for manual IBM SPSS Data Collection Data Entry.

Not only did we benefit from a massive reduction in person time for this project, saving approximately £13k in two weeks, but these results are now being referenced by other GMP Divisions as contributions to 'efficiency savings' required by Government.
Keith Bentley
Superintendent, Operations (retired)
Greater Manchester Police

The results

Successful completion of the survey project brought forward 400 persons in the two wards who were willing to work with the police to deliver problem‑solving initiatives, particularly those relating to actions to stop youth offending and anti-social behaviour.

But the main positive outcome was in terms of cost and time – and how the exercise turned GMP into a model organisation for other forces to follow. "Not only did we benefit from a massive reduction in person‑time for this project, saving approximately £13k in two weeks, but these results are now being referenced by other GMP Divisions as contributions to ‘efficiency savings’ required by Government," says Mr Bentley.

"The scanning process available with SPSS Inc. technology. and the capability to drill down into our public consultation survey data has become the bedrock from which the project can move forward during the next 12 months. Our increased survey and analysis capability has also impressed several partners, who have now fully bought into the National Reassurance Project in Oldham," Mr Bentley concludes.

* IBM SPSS Statistics Base, formerly called SPSS Base; and IBM SPSS Regression, formerly called IBM SPSS Regressions, are all part of SPSS Inc.’s Predictive Analytics Software portfolio.

Interested in technology for surveying public opinion? Download the Greater Manchester Police PDF here.