DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02885
title: Educating the Public About Police Through Public Service Announcements in Lima, Ohio, 1995-1997
title: Archival Version

description: This study was designed to analyze the impact of four
 televised public service announcements (PSAs) aired for three months
 in Lima, Ohio. The researchers sought to answer three specific
 research questions: (1) Were the PSAs effective in transferring
 knowledge to citizens about the police? (2) Did the PSAs have an
 impact on resident satisfaction with the police? and (3) Did the PSAs
 have an impact on the behavior of citizens interacting with the
 police? To assess public attitudes about the Lima police and to
 determine whether the substance of the PSAs was being communicated to
 the residents of Lima, three waves of telephone interviews were
 conducted (Part 1). The first telephone interviews were conducted in
 April 1996 with approximately 500 randomly selected Lima
 residents. These were baseline interviews that took place before the
 PSAs aired. The survey instrument used in the first interview assessed
 resident satisfaction with the police and the services they
 provided. After completion of the Wave 1 interviews, the PSAs were
 aired on television for three months (June 5-August 28, 1996). After
 August 28, the PSAs were removed from general circulation. A second
 wave of telephone interviews was conducted in September 1996 with a
 different group of randomly selected Lima residents. The same survey
 instrument used during the first interviews was administered during
 the second wave, with additional questions added relating to whether
 the respondent saw any of the PSAs. A third group of randomly selected
 Lima residents was contacted via the telephone in January 1997 for the
 final wave of interviews. The final interviews utilized the identical
 survey instrument used during Wave 2. The focus of this follow-up
 survey was on citizen retention, over time, of the information
 communicated in the PSAs. Official data collected from computerized
 records maintained by the Lima Police Department were also collected
 to monitor changes in citizen behavior (Part 2). The records data span
 127 weeks, from January 1, 1995, to June 7, 1997, which includes 74
 weeks of pre-PSA data and 53 weeks of data for the period during the
 initial airing of the first PSA and thereafter. Variables in Part 1
 include whether respondents were interested in learning about what to
 do if stopped by the police, what actions they had displayed when
 stopped by the police, if they would defend another person being
 treated unfairly by the police, how responsible they felt (as a
 citizen) in preventing crimes, the likelihood of calling the police if
 they were aware of a crime, perception of crime and fear of crime, and
 whether there had been an increase or decrease in the level of crime
 in their neighborhoods. Respondents were also asked about the amount
 of television they watched, whether they saw any of the public service
 announcements and if so to rate them, whether the PSAs provided
 information not already known, whether any of the PSA topics had come
 up in conversations with family or friends, and whether the
 respondent would like to see more PSAs in the future. Finally,
 respondents were asked whether the police were doing as much as they
 could to make the neighborhood safe, how responsive the police were to
 nonemergency matters, and to rate their overall satisfaction with the
 Lima Police Department and its various services. Demographic variables
 for Part 1 include the race, gender, age, marital status, level of
 education, employment status, and income level of each respondent.
 Variables in Part 2 cover police use-of-force or resisting arrest
 incidents that took place during the study period, whether the PSA
 aired during the week in which a use-of-force or resisting arrest
 incident took place, the number of supplemental police use-of-force
 reports that were made, and the number of resisting arrest charges
made.
description: Community-oriented policing relies on a
 partnership between the police and the public. Ideally, this
 partnership should be an informed relationship wherein both parties --
 the police and the public -- understand the needs and expectations of
 the other. However, the public is rarely equipped with a clear
 understanding of the police's role or of how to behave when involved
 in a police-citizen encounter. Consequently, misunderstandings occur
 that diminish the capacity of the public to form an effective
 partnership with the police. Academics and law enforcement personnel
 have emphasized training police officers to be empathic toward the
 diverse elements accompanying the populations they serve. What had
 been overlooked was the need to educate and make empathic the other
 half of the partnership -- the public. This study sought to analyze
 the impact of four televised public service announcements (PSAs) aired
 for three months in Lima, Ohio. The PSAs were created with the goal of
 educating the public about the police and informing citizens about how
 to behave during encounters with the police. Moreover, the study
 sought to answer three specific research questions: (1) Were the PSAs
 effective in transferring knowledge to citizens about the police? (2)
 Did the PSAs have an impact on resident satisfaction with the police?
 and (3) Did the PSAs have an impact on the behavior of citizens
interacting with the police?
description: Researchers first conducted a focus group with the
 Lima Police Department to determine which issues would be the center
 of the public service announcements (PSAs). The Lima focus group
 generated approximately 12 areas of police concern that officers
 characterized as problematic. After careful review of the items
 identified from the focus group, researchers selected four areas to
 concentrate on for the PSAs: (1) helpful tips if you are pulled over,
 (2) helpful tips for police emergencies, (3) helpful tips for
 disturbances and disagreements with the police, and (4) the police
 role and community-oriented policing. To determine whether the
 substance of the PSAs was being communicated to the residents of Lima,
 OH, three waves of telephone interviews were conducted (Part 1). The
 first telephone interviews were conducted in April 1996 with
 approximately 500 randomly selected Lima residents. These interviews
 took place before the PSAs aired. The survey instrument used in the
 first interviews assessed resident satisfaction with the police and
 the services they provided. After completion of the Wave 1
 interviews, the PSAs were aired on television for three months (June
 5-August 28, 1996) with an average of three airings a day. After
 August 28, the PSAs were removed from general circulation. The second
 wave of telephone interviews was conducted in September 1996 with a
 different group of randomly selected Lima residents. The same survey
 instrument used during the first interviews was administered during
 the second wave, with additional questions added relating to whether
 the respondent saw any of the PSAs. The second wave of interviews
 served two purposes. First, residents were asked questions concerning
 knowledge about the four PSA topics and comparisons were made of these
 levels of knowledge before and after the airings, using data from
 Wave 1 as baseline data. Second, the interviews were used to
 determine whether there was a relationship between any of the PSAs and
 resident satisfaction with the police. A third group of randomly
 selected Lima residents was contacted via the telephone in January
 1997 for the final wave of interviews. The final interviews utilized
 the identical survey instrument used during Wave 2. The focus of this
 follow-up survey was on citizen retention, over time, of the
 information communicated in the PSAs. Official data from Lima police
 records were also collected to monitor changes in citizen behavior
 (Part 2). The data span 127 weeks, from January 1, 1995, to June 7,
 1997, which includes 74 weeks of data for the period prior to the
 onset of the intervention and 53 weeks of data for the period during
 the initial airing of the first PSA and thereafter. In addition,
 weekly counts of resisting arrest incidents, supplemental reports of
 police use-of-force, and charges of resisting an arrest were collected
 from computerized records maintained by the Lima Police Department
during the study period.
description: Variables in Part 1 include whether respondents
 were interested in learning about what to do if stopped by the police,
 what actions they had displayed when stopped by the police, if they
 would defend another person being treated unfairly by the police, how
 responsible they felt (as a citizen) in preventing crimes, the
 likelihood of calling the police if they were aware of a crime,
 perception of crime and fear of crime, and whether there had been an
 increase or decrease in the level of crime in their
 neighborhoods. Respondents were also asked about the amount of
 television they watched, whether they saw any of the public service
 announcements and if so to rate them, whether the PSAs provided
 information not already known to them, whether any of the PSA topics
 had come up in conversations with family or friends, and whether they
 would like to see more PSAs in the future. Finally, respondents were
 asked whether the police were doing as much as they could to make the
 neighborhood safe, how responsive the police were to nonemergency
 matters, and to rate their overall satisfaction with the Lima Police
 Department and its various services. Demographic variables for Part 1
 include the race, gender, age, marital status, level of education,
 employment status, and income level of each respondent. Variables in
 Part 2 cover the year that use-of-force or resisting arrest incidents
 took place, whether the PSA aired during the week in which a
 use-of-force or resisting arrest incident took place, the number of
 supplemental police use-of-force reports that were made, and the
number of resisting arrest charges made.
description: Response Rates: For Part 1, the three waves of interviews
 (approximately 500 per wave) yielded a response rate of 64
percent. Part 2: Not applicable.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert scales were used.
description: Simple random sampling.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Public Service Announcements Data
DS2: Use of Force Data
description: Part 1: All households in Lima, Ohio. Part 2: Counts of
resisting arrest charges and police use-of-force incidents.
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
 instruments are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF)
 file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
 and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
 Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.