DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02558.v1
title: Increasing the Efficiency of Police Departments in Allegany County, New York, 1994-1995
title: Version 1

description: This study sought to investigate the attitudes of residents
 and law enforcement personnel living or working in Allegany County,
 New York in order to (1) assess community support of law enforcement
 efforts to collaborate on projects, and (2) determine rural law
 enforcement agencies' willingness to work together on community
 policing projects and share resources in such a way as to improve and
 increase their overall individual and collective effectiveness and
 efficiency. Community policing, for this study, was defined as any law
 enforcement strategy designed to improve policy directed toward law
 enforcement interaction with community groups and citizens. Data were
 gathered from surveys that were distributed to two groups. First, to
 determine community perceptions of crime and attitudes toward the
 development of collaborative community policing strategies, surveys
 were distributed to the residents of the villages of Alfred and
 Wellsville and the town of Alfred in Allegany County, New York (Part
 1, Community Survey Data). Second, to capture the ideas and
 perceptions of different types of law enforcement agencies regarding
 their willingness to share training, communication, and technology,
 surveys were distributed to the law enforcement agencies of
 Wellsville, Alfred, the New York State Police substation (located in
 the town of Wellsville), the county sheriff's department, and the
 Alfred State College and Alfred University public safety departments
 (Part 2, Law Enforcement Survey Data). For Part 1 (Community Survey
 Data), the residents were asked to rate their level of fear of crime,
 the reason for most crime problems (i.e., gangs, drugs, or
 unsupervised children), positive and negative contact with police, the
 presence and overall level of police service in the neighborhoods, and
 the importance of motor vehicle patrols, foot patrols, crime
 prevention programs, and traffic enforcement. Respondents were also
 asked whether they agreed that police should concentrate more on
 catching criminals (as opposed to implementing community-based
 programs), and if community policing was a good idea. Demographic data
 on residents includes their age, sex, whether they had been the victim
 of a property or personal crime, and the number of years they had
 lived in their respective communities. Demographic information for
 Part 2 (Law Enforcement Survey Data) includes the sex, age, and
 educational level of law enforcement respondents, as well as the
 number of years they had worked with their respective
 departments. Respondents were asked if they believed in and would
 support programs targeted toward youth, adults, the elderly, and
 merchants. Further queries focused on the number of regular and
 overtime hours used to train, develop, and implement department
 programs. A series of questions dealing with degrees of trust between
 the departments and levels of optimism was also asked to gauge
 attitudes that might discourage collaboration efforts with other
 departments on community-oriented programs. Officers were also asked
to rate their willingness to work with the other agencies.
description: Often, a roadblock to developing community
 policing projects is law enforcement agencies' concerns that increased
 interaction with community groups and citizens would take up valuable
 time and detract from efficient use of resources, thus decreasing
 overall law enforcement effectiveness. In theory, sharing personnel
 among various law enforcement agencies can provide more resources to
 carry out tasks without interrupting traditional police activities or
 increasing the need to use costly overtime. However, rural law
 enforcement agencies must overcome geographic dispersion, as well as
 maintain a willingness to interact and communicate with neighboring
 agencies, in order to implement successful community policing
 projects. This study sought to investigate the attitudes of residents
 and law enforcement personnel living or working in Allegany County,
 New York, in order to (1) assess community support of law enforcement
 efforts to collaborate on projects, and (2) determine rural law
 enforcement agencies' willingness to work together on community
 policing projects and share resources in such a way as to improve and
 increase their overall individual and collective effectiveness and
efficiency.
description: Data were collected from surveys distributed to
 two groups. First, to determine community perceptions of crime and
 attitudes toward the development of collaborative community policing
 strategies, surveys were distributed to the residents of the villages
 of Alfred and Wellsville and the town of Alfred in Allegany County,
 New York (Part 1, Community Survey Data). It had been decided that the
 county would be the appropriate geographic area to use when defining a
 community. With this definition of community, organizations other than
 law enforcement agencies that operated throughout the county would be
 included in the analysis. However, time constraints and resources
 prevented sampling the entire county, so the population used in
 gathering information on citizens' perceptions was limited to the
 villages of Alfred and Wellsville and the town of Alfred. The police
 departments of Alfred and Wellsville worked with faculty and students
 of Alfred University to design the survey questionnaire. Because of
 the dominance of special housing and the large number of students in
 the village of Alfred, it was decided to give the survey to the total
 population of residences not situated on the two college
 campuses. Second, surveys were distributed to the law enforcement
 agencies of Wellsville and Alfred, the New York State Police
 substation (located in the village of Wellsville), the county
 sheriff's department, and the Alfred State College and Alfred
 University public safety departments (Part 2, Law Enforcement Survey
 Data). These agencies had a history of working together when officers
 needed backup, but there was no history of community-oriented programs
 involving collaboration among the agencies. The Community Policing
 Survey was designed to capture the ideas and perceptions of the
 different departments regarding their willingness to share training,
 communication, and technology, and whether personnel exhibited
 attitudes that would encourage or discourage collaboration with other
departments on community-oriented programs.
description: For Part 1, Community Survey Data, information
 collected from interviews with the residents of the villages of
 Wellsville and Alfred and the town of Alfred, New York, asked the
 residents to rate their level of fear of crime, the reason for most
 crime problems (i.e., gangs, drugs, or unsupervised children),
 positive and negative contact with police, the presence and overall
 level of police service in the neighborhoods, and the importance of
 motor vehicle patrols, foot patrols, crime prevention programs, and
 traffic enforcement. Respondents were asked whether they agreed that
 police should concentrate more on catching criminals (as opposed to
 implementing community-based programs), and if community policing was
 a good idea. Residents were also asked their age, sex, and whether
 they had been the victim of a property or personal crime, and the
 number of years lived in their respective community. Demographic
 information for Part 2, Law Enforcement Survey Data, includes the sex,
 age, and educational level of law enforcement respondents, as well as
 the number of years worked with their respective
 departments. Respondents were asked if they believed in and would
 support programs targeted toward youth, adults, the elderly, and
 merchants. Respondents were further asked how many regular and
 overtime hours were used to train, develop, and implement department
 programs. A series of questions dealing with degrees of trust between
 the departments and levels of optimism were asked to gauge attitudes
 that would discourage collaboration efforts with other departments on
 community-oriented programs. Each officer was also asked to rate their
willingness to work with each of the other agencies.
description: Response Rates: Unknown.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Several Likert-type scales were used in Parts 1 and 2.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Community Survey Data
DS2: Law Enforcement Survey Data
description: Part 1: Residents of the villages of Alfred and Wellsville
 and the town of Alfred in Allegany County, New York. Part 2: Law
enforcement personnel throughout Allegany County, New York.
description: The user guide and codebook are provided as a Portable 
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file 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 through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.