5% drop in people feeling safe; POLICING.

THE number of people who feel safe has dropped markedly, it emerged yesterday.

The Policing Board described it as "a statistically significant decrease".

The Omnibus Survey on public perceptions on the service delivered by the PSNI said only 88 per cent of respondents felt safe in April.

This is compared to 93 per cent last September.

There was a rise to 87 per cent in those who said they had a lot or total confidence in the PSNI's ability to provide a day-to-day policing service for all.

But there was a two per cent drop among Catholics.

Policing Board chairman Barry Gilligan said overall the results were "very positive".