Swift help for police

A YORKSHIRE market research company is helping police forces across the country to ensure they give the best possible service to victims of crime.

Swift Research has won contracts with 16 police forces to help them comply with the Home Office’s mandatory guidelines for dealing with victims of crime.

The data produced by Swift Research will be used by police authorities to ensure they are meeting the demands of the public.

Wetherby-based Swift Research have been assisting the Home Office and police authorities for more than seven years in formulating customer satisfaction surveys.

Alison Flannery, Swift Research’s marketing director, said: “This is a highly specialised area of research that we have developed with Government and police authorities in recent years.

“The analysis of this research plays an important part in helping the police to ensure its services are meeting the level required by the victims of crime.

“Some forces have experienced difficulty in gaining comprehensive and accurate information but our system has been designed to overcome this while at the same time providing a sympathetic and flexible approach to respondents, many of whom have been the victims of crime.”

Katie Russell, consultation analyst at North Yorkshire Police, said Swift’s research had proved a valuable aid to enhancing their services to the community.

“This research provides the Force with an opportunity to get a clear picture of how victims of crime view the service that they receive.

“This information is then relayed to our Safer Neighbourhood Teams with feedback going directly to individual officers.

“The vast majority of respondents say how helpful, supportive and understanding our officers have been but it also picks up on areas where a situation could have been handled better and enables us to learn from that.”