The thesis contributes to the literature on public opinion of and trust in the
police. The theoretical framework is based on Tyler’s procedural justice theory
adapted to the British context. Procedural justice theory postulates that
legitimacy and trust are largely based on perceptions of procedural fairness –
believing that the police treat citizens with fairness and respect and that
citizen’s views are heard and taken into account. The focus of the thesis is on
the role of the mass media and police communication in shaping such
perceptions, public trust, and other related aspects of public opinion of the
police.
The thesis contributes new empirical evidence of theoretical and practical
significance with three empirical studies. The first study tests a series of
hypotheses about media effects on public opinion. It combines a comprehensive
content analysis of newspaper reporting on policing in five major British
newspapers from 2007 to 2010 with public opinion data from a large-scale
population representative survey fielded continuously over the same three-year
period. The second study is a ‘real-world’ quasi-randomised experiment testing
the impact of local police newsletters on public trust in the police in seven
neighbourhoods in London. The third study examines the role of perceptions of
information provision in public trust in the police more closely based on the
survey data from the first study. The findings suggest that media and police
messages about how the police conduct themselves towards individual citizens
as well as towards the community at large have a bigger effect on public trust
than messages about the effectiveness of the police in carrying out their duties.
Overall, press reporting has a small effect on public trust in the police. Police
communication can enhance public trust in the police and is important in
particular for those who have least trust in the police
