This week we received the report of a recent inspection done at Bitterne police station.

This wasn't the usual inspection though. This was a visit done by a group of young people there to question us about how young people are dealt with, the complaints and comments procedure, staff training and recruitment, how the service is promoted, and the perception of the police.

Their feedback to us was very positive and was amongst the most clear and useful I have seen; good ideas, practical recommendations.

I was particularly pleased that for several of the youth inspectors their visit had a very positive impact on their attitude towards their local police.

We will look at how we can respond to the ideas but if that visit led to just a few more young people feeling more confident in us then that's great.

Last night it was my turn to be questioned and this was by a group of councillors who were scrutinising the work of the City Safety Partnership. There was lots of good news and positive results in terms of crime reduction and less anti-social behaviour to talk about.

We have just finished the Safer Southampton week which was well covered every day last week by the Echo.

This paper also carried an article this week which suggested that despite lots of work confidence and reassurance hadn't improved in the city. How you measure confidence is problematic and what affects people's confidence isn't simple either.

We know personal experience or accounts or rumours that people hear from family and friends are all powerful and have an impact. What is clearly true is that people feel more confident if they know their local police, they feel treated fairly by us and we are doing a good job at tackling anti-social behaviour and crime in their area (which includes us being seen in that area!) so that's what I will continue to focus on.

We also know people are satisfied with our service when we are polite, we respond quickly and we keep people informed.

What about what you read in the media?

Does that affect confidence? The Echo's Friday headline was about complaints against the police and if you read it in full you will have noticed that in 2008-2009 Southampton Central police station recorded more complaints against police than other stations in Hampshire. What you won't have read though is that overall the City was not at the top in comparison to other areas of Hampshire.

Is it a surprise that our central police station has more complaints than other stations? Maybe not when you consider that we police the busiest city centre area in the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We deal with large numbers of people coming into contact with us because they are drunk and we house one of the biggest custody centres. But I take all complaints seriously.

None are ignored, but we deal with people in very difficult circumstances and whilst it's right we are held to account for what we do, we see many complaints which have no grounds.

Fortunately, nowadays if we get something wrong we can normally resolve it quickly and to the satisfaction of the complainant who may just want an explanation or apology. Complaints are inevitable due to the nature of our work and of course I might prefer it if Southampton Central area hadn't been top of the pile for 2008-09 (more recently we've certainly had less complaints of some types e.g. incivility).

But it's vital we are open to listen to people who are dissatisfied with what we have done and I'd be really worried about what was going on if we got no complaints.

The media is another way we are held to account so I might not like reading headlines critical of the service I lead in the City but as long as the reporting is accurate and balanced and as long as public complaints are made in good faith then I would not want to be without these ways, and the many others, in which we are held to account including those perceptive young people who visited Bitterne.