Community engagement, impact assessments and communication
Developing a policing plan — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
Community impact assessments (CIAs) and community tension summaries (CTSs) are tools used to collect the perspectives of local communities, enhancing understanding of unrest and issues affecting them. Forces can utilize the CIA toolkit to develop CIAs throughout all stages of public order public safety (POPS) operations. CIAs help identify local tensions, document disruptions to communities, and support decision-making by the command team. Each force should aim to produce one CTS weekly, contributing to broader assessments. For effective community engagement, officers are advised to consider appointing a dedicated officer to oversee CIAs. This process promotes transparency, legitimacy, and proportionality in policing responses during events.
Key principles
- 1Use CIAs to gather community opinions and assess tensions.
- 2Document CIAs to aid decision-making and inform command teams.
- 3One CTS per force should be completed weekly.
- 4Consider the impact of specific events on local communities.
- 5Appoint a dedicated officer for CIA oversight during events.
Full guidance
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
Community impact assessments (CIAs) and community tension summaries (CTSs) can be used to gather the opinions and feelings of local communities. These can then be fed into the national picture regarding unrest and community-based issues.
Forces may use the CIA toolkit to assist in the development of a CIA throughout all phases of the POPS operation.
Using CIAs
CIAs may be used as a sounding board for any tensions in the local community and can be a source of evidence for the impact that a particular event is having on a specific geographic location or in specific communities.
Forces should complete and document CIAs to evidence the disruption to the local community. They may also assist in informing the command team and improving the decision-making processes. As there is one CTS per force per week, CIAs can also be used to feed into the weekly CTS assessment.
POPS commanders should consider the benefit of a CIA for the specific event that they are commanding. CIAs can be used as an event-specific process and will assist in developing information and intelligence.
Forces should also consider completing an equality impact assessment to fully cover the equality impact of the event or operation.
POPS commanders should consider appointing a dedicated officer to perform the roles of bronze community to oversee, implement and develop a CIA for the event. The information should be a part of the overall planning and associated decision-making process. The use of a CIA will assist in demonstrating overall transparency, legitimacy and proportionality of a policing response to a specific POPS event or operation.
Engaging with communities
Where forces aim to engage with communities, further advice and information can be found in the following.
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Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.