What is the perception of public insecurity?

If the perception measured by the survey is clearly improving, why does watching the news and reading the press leave one with a different feeling? Does the saying "data kills the narrative" still apply?

Between July and December 2025, the fieldwork for the National Urban Citizen Security Survey 2025 (ENUSC 2025) was conducted, which was published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention in July 2026.

Having a survey that measures security perceptions across Chile with a sample of nearly 56,000 households is a significant asset that we must protect. More importantly, it should be used in decision-making related to public security improvement efforts. These efforts must go beyond the obvious, the fight against organized crime, as they should positively impact the quality of life for all Chileans, regardless of where they live and the work they do.

In this column, I only want to address two topics highlighted by the ENUSC 2025: first, how the perception of security is constructed. And second, the role that police and municipal security services play in people’s perceptions.

In section 4 of the survey, which addresses the issue of security perception, it is clear that we are better off than a year ago, both in the likelihood of being a victim of a crime (57% vs. 53%) and in the general perception of the national security situation (87.5% vs. 82.9%).

This is good news; the trend is moving in the right direction. It is not necessarily clear what was done to achieve this improvement, but clearly, the sum of efforts produced results. The best trend is observed both at the national level and at the communal and neighborhood levels, but insecurity is higher among older individuals and those with lower incomes: they should be the primary focus of state and municipal efforts.

What is striking is that if the perception measured by the survey is clearly improving, why does watching the news and reading the press leave one with a different feeling? Does the saying “data kills the narrative” still apply?

This is evident in slide 54 of the survey. The perception of increased crime at the national level is generated 53% by television, followed by social media at 29%. In contrast, the perception at the communal level comes from 46% social media and 22% from family and other people, which I suspect includes WhatsApp. At the neighborhood level, 51% are family and other people, 23% social media, and 21% personal experience.

In part 5 of the ENUSC, perceptions of public security institutions are examined. What does this section tell us? It indicates that there is a good understanding of what both Carabineros and the Investigative Police (PDI) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office do; that levels of trust remain consistent with the previous year, and that the perception of the work done by Carabineros at the neighborhood level is better than in 2024.

This is not the case in the eastern communes of Santiago (Las Condes, Vitacura, Providencia, and Lo Barnechea), where the perception of Carabineros’ work declines, which correlates clearly with the reduced staffing that has been allocated to the precincts in recent years, as they have been redirected to other communes considered more complex. Their absence has been partially supplemented by municipal security departments, which perform an important role but do not have the same powers, thus failing to compensate for the reduced police presence.

In conclusion, we must continue conducting this survey, as it adds significant value, even though it sometimes communicates results that are not well received by all affected authorities. The focus should obviously be on the elderly and the poorest.

We must also understand that municipal security is an imperfect substitute for Carabineros, which is why we either need to increase their staffing or grant greater powers to municipal security in the communes affected by their absence.

RICHARD KOUYOUMDJIAN INGLIS
Executive Vice President AthenaLab