The aim of this research was to advance academic understanding of how the public constructs police legitimacy by: (1) examining the criteria employed in approving / disapproving of police behaviour; (2) Identifying those features of police-public encounters that promote favourable or unfavourable assessments from the public; (3) Compare similarities and differences between younger people and adults drawn from different neighbourhood types and ethnic groups. The ultimate purpose was to improve the quality of service provided to the public by police agencies and private security companies by: (1) Sensitising officers to how their actions are appraised by the public they serve and (2) Raising awareness of the differences in evaluations of police conduct amongst a diverse population. This research is designed to delve into police-public encounters and identify those features of which the public approves or disapproves. This is important as previous research indicates that whilst most people value the police as an institution, their experience of contact with police officers is less favourable. What is it about such experience that leaves people with an unflattering impression? Equally, what is the good practice of which they approve? It is also well-established that attitudes to the police are least favourable amongst the young and ethnic minorities, and also varies with lifestyle. Is this because young people, ethnic minorities and those with particular lifestyles are treated differently by the police, or do these groups have an 'anti-police' bias?

Data collection methods included: (1) individual questionnaires containing approval / disapproval ratings, age, gender and ethnic composition of each focus group and (2) video–clips displaying police–public encounters, discussed by focus groups. Methodology in detail: 5 episodes of routine, but problematic police–public encounters were extracted from broadcast BBC documentaries on policing and a licence obtained from the BBC to use the extract for research purposes. These were then displayed one at a time to a diverse array of focus groups selected from across the ‘Black Country’ region of the West Midlands to maximize representation of neighborhood, age, gender, and ethnic composition. Each focus group participant completed a brief questionnaire asking for their approval / disapproval rating of police behavior in each clip before and after the discussion was held, plus any free text comments. The discussions were recorded on digital audio files (.wma). A total of 39 focus groups were held, 34 of which were deemed useful for analysis (two were pilot groups, two more were demonstrations held at the annual conference of the British Criminology Society and one was a very small group of LGBT activists held at the University of Wolverhampton and considered too unrepresentative to prove helpful. The participants (entities under study) comprised younger and older people from across a range of ethnic minorities and lifestyles.