Cheshire Constabulary has commissioned a piece of research with an external market research company called Marketing Means.  

The survey will start on Monday 3 August 2009

The research takes the form of a confidence survey conducted over the telephone, with the results being used by the force to identify for example, neighbourhoods with particularly high and low confidence in the police, so that we may be able to develop our services to address any issues that arise.  

The requirement to conduct Local Confidence Surveys is a national Home Office directive made of all forces within England and Wales following release of the national public confidence target set in January 2009.

Force-wide phone calls will be made throughout August and the first week of September, with phone numbers being selected at random by Marketing Means using a 'random digit dialling' file - NB: this file will include ex-directory numbers which could raise concerns.  Marketing Means will also be contacting mobile numbers, again using a 'random digit dialling' file.

Although Cheshire Constabulary has paid for a number of radio broadcasts on local radio stations and respondents are being given the choice to opt out of completing the surveys,  members of the public may still wish to query why they have been contacted or perhaps to check that the caller is conducting legitimate research.