Evaluation of Community Policing Initiatives in Jefferson County, West Virginia, 1996-1997

This data collection was designed to evaluate the
 implementation of community policing initiatives for three police
 departments in Jefferson County, West Virginia: the Ranson Town Police
 Department, the West Virginia State Police (Jefferson County
 Detachment), and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. The
 evaluation was undertaken by the Free Our Citizens of Unhealthy
 Substances Coalition (FOCUS), a county-based group of citizens who
 represented all segments of the community, including businesses,
 churches, local law enforcement agencies, and local governments. The
 aim was to find answers to the following questions: (1) Can community
 policing have any detectable and measurable impact in a predominantly
 rural setting? (2) Did the police department do what they said they
 would do in their funding application? (3) If they were successful,
 what factors supported their efforts and were key to their success?
 and (4) If they were not successful, what problems prevented their
 success? The coalition conducted citizen surveys to evaluate how much
 of an impact community policing initiatives had in their county. In
 January 1996, research assistants conducted a baseline survey of 300
 households in the county. Survey responses were intended to gauge
 residents' fear of crime and to assess how well the police were
 performing their duties. After one year, the coalition repeated its
 survey of public attitudes, and research assistants interviewed
 another 300 households. The research assumption was that any change in
 fear of crime or assessment of police performance could reasonably be
 attributed to these new community policing inventions. Crime reporting
 variables from the survey included which crime most concerned the
 respondent, if the respondent would report a crime he or she observed,
 and whether the respondent would testify about the crime in
 court. Variables pertaining to level of concern for specific crimes
 include how concerned respondents were that someone would rob or
 attack them, break into or vandalize their home, or try to sexually
 attack them/someone they cared about. Community involvement variables
 covered participation in community groups or activities, neighborhood
 associations, church, or informal social activities. Police/citizen
 interaction variables focused on the number of times respondents had
 called to report a problem to the police in the last two years, how
 satisfied they were with how the police handled the problem, the
 extent to which this police department needed improvement, whether
 children trusted law enforcement officers, whether police needed to
 respond more quickly to calls, whether the police needed improved
 relations with the community, and in the past year whether local
 police performance had improved/gotten worse. Specific crime
 information variables include whether the crime occurred in the
 respondent's neighborhood, whether he/she was the victim, if crime was
 serious in the respondent's neighborhood versus elsewhere, whether the
 respondent had considered moving as a result of crime in the
 neighborhood, and how personal safety had changed in the respondent's
 neighborhood. Variables relating to community policing include whether
 the respondent had heard the term "community policing" in the past
 year, from what source, and what community policing activities the
 respondent was aware of. Demographic variables include job
 self-classification, racial/ethnic identity, length of residency, age,
 gender, martial status, educational status, and respondent's town of
residence.

Tags: community-involvement, community-organizations, community-policing, crime-reporting, fear-of-crime, law-enforcement-agencies, police-citizen-interactions, police-performance, program-evaluation, public-opinion, rural-areas
Organization: Department of Justice