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Sample Community Satisfaction Survey Questions
Community surveys are instrumental in gauging the public perception of your agency. What follows are a number of questions that could be incorporated into a community survey to gain a better understanding of how your agency is seen by your community. It may help your department during reviews of goals and objectives as well as provide feedback for programs already in place and for what may be perceived by the public as lacking. For more information on community surveys, see Community Surveys under Published Articles.
Questions in red can be culled together to establish a "Police Satisfaction Index", and should be repeated each time a survey is conducted.
- Preliminary screening questions:
· Gender
· Age
· Community (if required or applicable)
· Length of time in community
- To the best of your knowledge, is the area where you live patrolled by [your agency name here]?
· If unknown - terminate - other agencies named may be helpful to you
- As you may or may not know, [your agency name here] is responsible for policing in your area. Overall, how satisfied are you with the level of service provided by [your agency]? Would you say you are:
Completely satisfied
Mostly satisfied
Mostly dissatisfied
Completely dissatisfied
Don't know/no answer
- As you may or may not know, [your agency name here] is responsible for policing in your area. Overall, how satisfied are you with the level of service provided by [your agency]? Would you say you are:
- Why do you say you are (answer from above) with [your agency]?
Provide various options, and the option for them to provide an alternative answer
- What do you think is the greatest strength of [your agency]?
Then: What other strengths does the department have?
Provide various options and an opportunity for them to provide an alternative answer
- What do you think is the greatest weakness of [your agency]?
- From what you know or have heard, how satisfied are you with [your agency] in terms of:
· Response times
· Quality of police officers
· Visibility in the community
· Professionalism
· Programs offered to the community
· Overall helpfulness
· Number of officers
· Overall attitude of [your agency]
· Overall resources of [your agency]
- How safe do you feel in your neighborhood?
Very safe
Generally safe
Not very safe
Not safe at all
- How safe do you feel in your neighborhood?
- Compared to the rest of [your city], do you think your neighborhood has more crime, about the same amount of crime or less crime?
- Do you think crime in your neighborhood has increased, decreased or stayed about the same?
- Do you think crime in your neighborhood has increased, decreased or stayed about the same?
- What, if anything, would be the single most important thing you would recommend [your agency] to improve public safety in your community?
- Have you had any contact with [your agency] for any reason in the last six months?
- All things considered, when you last contacted [your agency], were you satisfied with the contact?
Completely satisfied
Mostly satisfied
Mostly dissatisfied
Completely dissatisfied
- All things considered, when you last contacted [your agency], were you satisfied with the contact?
- Why so?
Provide various responses including contact process, officer responding, ensuing follow-up, criminal justice system, etc.
- In discussing various types of crime, how much attention do you believe [your agency] should dedicate to:
List what your agency is interested in here … include things like: robbery, assault, prostitution, drug enforcement, property crime, stolen vehicles, youth crime, noise complaints, traffic, etc.
A great deal of attention
Some attention
Little attention
- Keeping in mind that police resources are limited, which one of the following five services do you think should be the highest priority of [your agency]?
List your priorities from your mission statement/goals and objectives; or come up with what your department feels are the key items - i.e.: increased patrols, involvement with youth, crime prevention, drug control, community problem solving, gangs, etc.
- What crime prevention program that [your agency] offers are you aware of?
List your agency's crime prevention programs here
- Which one of the following, do you think, has the most impact on your overall opinion of [your agency]?
· What you hear or see in the media
· Personal experience with police
· What friends and relatives tell you about police
· What community leaders say about police
· Knowing a police officer
- Would you be willing to pay higher property taxes if you knew the money was earmarked specifically for police services in your community?
· If so, how much extra would you be willing to pay annually? - Would you be willing to pay higher property taxes if you knew the money was earmarked specifically for police services in your community?
- Complete demographic questions (optional):
· Highest level of education completed
· Current employment status
· Income categories
· Children under the age of 18 residing at home
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Internal Communications Survey Questions At the same time your agency conducts an external survey, it is wise to conduct an internal audit to compare the public's expectations to what officers and staff perceive to be the community's significant concerns, perceptions and expectations. Questions in this survey could include:
Sample questions include: · Are you satisfied with the communication between yourself and your supervisors?· What are your suggestions to improve internal communication?· Do you believe [your agency] aptly recognizes individuals who perform a job well?· Do you believe your supervisor recognizes employees for a job well done? |
