Community Survey: Overall results good on officer contacts
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula Police Department
Published: March 12, 2010
Preliminary results from the Santa Paula Police Community Survey show that although most citizens are more than satisfied with their officers, some believe improvement is needed in approachability and friendliness.
The wide-ranging survey covers a variety of subjects addressing police services and programs, as well as asking input on how department personnel do their job.
Some of the information gleaned from the survey - believed to the first of its kind for the department - will be incorporated into the SPPD 5-Year Strategic Plan now being prepared by Police Chief Steve MacKinnon.
The survey states, “We are striving for high quality services while maintaining excellent community relations. You have every right to expect the very best from us. If we did right, we would like to know. If we did not, we need to know.”
As of March 2, most of the 135 respondents believe the SPPD did it right: 36 percent recorded their contact with a receptionist/dispatcher ranked “great” when it came to courtesy and helpfulness. Eighteen percent said the contact was above average, 14.6 reported average, and 6.8 percent responded their treatment was poor to above poor.
Treatment from officers ranks even higher, with 53.4 percent rating contact as great, 17 percent above average, 10.2 percent average and 5.7 poor. The survey also asks how well an SPPD employee explained action taken at the time of the contact or to be taken later, and how well the officer or employee presented him or herself, including demeanor and appearance.
Both categories had high rankings from respondents, and the overall rating of the SPPD was 50.6 percent “great,” 27.1 percent above average, 14.1 percent average, 1.2 percent above poor and 2.4 percent “poor.”
When it came to police contact, 32.6 percent stated they attended a community event sponsored by the SPPD and 29.3 percent said they reported a crime or suspicious activity. Being a crime victim was reported by 10.9 percent, 5.4 percent were a witness to a crime, 6.5 percent had been stopped for a traffic violation and 2.2 percent reported they had been arrested.
When it comes to the varied comment sections of the survey, “The one thing that stands out in my mind,” said MacKinnon, an issue that “we will definitely address in the strategic plan as well as the immediate future, is that some commented in different ways that officers should be more approachable, friendlier.”
MacKinnon believes the comments stem from the rookie status of some of the officers. “We have a number of recently hired officers that are still new on the job. Their focus is being crime fighters. We have to emphasize” that, while crime fighting remains the priority, community relations and interaction are also of great importance.
“It’s a learning curve for them” that MacKinnon said can be addressed in various ways, including training videos that concentrate on “how better to approach the public, how to interact rather than the typical Sergeant Joe Friday ‘Just the facts, madam’ approach.” Overall, MacKinnon believes people are well satisfied with their police department, which could be reflected in the low number of survey responses to date.
When asked why he thinks more people have not taken the survey, MacKinnon said, “I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I like to think of it this way: it’s been found an awful lot of the time when people are satisfied with what the government is doing you don’t hear a lot of noise, you see that on all levels of government... if people are satisfied they don’t feel the need to speak up.” And, he added, “I hope that’s one of reasons the SPPD does have such high satisfaction rates. It’s nice for us to know we’re appreciated - everyone likes being appreciated - but we also have to know what to work on to improve ourselves that much more.”
The deadline for taking part in the survey, available in English only online (www.ci.santa-paula.ca.us select Police from the City Departments listing and then click on the survey), with bilingual hard copies available at the Las Piedras Park Police Storefront, the SPPD Station, City Hall and Blanchard Community Library, is March 31.
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