Londoners believe that police are more fair today than in years past. What changed?
Public attitude surveys reveal a shift in how we view police fairness.
By Alina Jaffer
After a yearslong decline, followed by brief and unstable recoveries, public confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) fairness is finally rising.
The amount of Londoners who believed that police treat everyone fairly, regardless of who they are, dropped significantly between December 2019 and June 2022, a time period during which the public observed remarkable cases of police misconduct. This steep decline was followed by wavering improvements – public trust in MPS fairness was recovering, yes, but slightly and never for very long.
Recently though, the improvement has gained consistency—the number of people believing in police fairness has risen since September 2024, the longest standing stretch of growing confidence in over a decade.
(Source: Greater London Authority, MOPAC PAS) Click above for interactive link.
What caused the major decline in the first place?
This data raises some important questions, not just for the MPS but for the Londoners served by them. What went so wrong during the December 2019 to June 2022 decline, for example? Were the police really adopting more fair practices since September 2024? And is it possible to maintain this improving trust in police fairness?
The timeline below identifies incidents which fuelled the decline, according to a UK Parliament report on public confidence in policing and a House of Lords library briefing.
Our timeline also provides public attitude check-ins, revealing how confidence in fair policing differed between male and female, white and ethnic Londoners during this time.
(Source: UK Parliament POSTnote 693, House of Lords Library) Click here for full-screen.
Where did the rising perception of fair policing come from?
Publicly available data does not suggest that increasing trust in police fairness is linked to less cases of bad behaviour by officers.
“In recent years we have seen an increase in police referrals, including police complaints,” said the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). “We know that there was an increase in referrals following media coverage of high profile cases, like those involving David Carrick.”
There was, however, a record low homicide rate in 2025 and, according to a representative for the MPS, less theft, robberies and vehicle crimes throughout the year, in comparison to 2024. “Our New Met for London plan is delivering significant improvements on the issues that matter most to our communities and crime is falling across London,” said Commander Hayley Stuart.
In fact, it is possible that reduced crime could have affected confidence in fair policing. According to a 2025 release from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice (ONS CSJ), people who had experienced a crime in the last year were less likely to agree that the CJS was fair, compared with those who had not.
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