DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04152.v1
title: Assessing the Delivery of Community Policing Services in Ada County, Idaho, 2002
title: Version 1

description: This study was conducted to explore the ways that enable
 the Ada County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) to examine its behavior in five
 areas that embody its adoption of community policing elements: (1)
 periodic assessments of citizens' perceptions of crime and police
 services, (2) substation policing, (3) patrol based in
 problem-oriented identification and resolution, (4) performance
 evaluation in a community-oriented policing (COP)/problem-oriented
 policing (POP) environment, and (5) the building of community
 partnerships. The researchers strived to obtain both transitive and
 recursive effects. One of the goals of this project was to facilitate
 the ACSO's efforts toward self-reflection, and by doing so, become a
 learning organization. In order to do this, data were collected, via
 survey, from both citizens of Ada County and from deputies employed by
 the ACSO. The citizen survey was a random, stratified telephone
 survey, using CATI technology, administered to 761 Ada County
 residents who received patrol services from the ACSO. The survey was
 designed to correspond to a similar survey conducted in 1997
 (DEVELOPING A PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING MODEL IN ADA COUNTY, IDAHO,
 1997-1998 [ICPSR 2654]) in the same area regarding similar issues:
 citizens' fear of crime, citizens' satisfaction with police services,
 the extent of public knowledge about and interest in ideas of
 community policing, citizens' police service needs, sheriff's office
 service needs and their views of the community policing mandate. The
 deputy survey was a self-enumerated questionnaire administered to 54
 deputies and sergeants of the ACSO during a pre-arranged, regular
 monthly training. This survey consisted of four sections: the
 deputies' perception of crime problems, rating of the deputy
 performance evaluation, ethical issues in policing, and departmental
relations.
description: This study was conducted to explore the ways
 that enable the Ada County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) to examine its
 behavior in five areas that embody its adoption of community policing
 elements. These five areas are: (1) periodic assessments of citizens'
 perceptions of crime and police services, (2) substation policing, (3)
 patrol based in problem-oriented identification and resolution, (4)
 performance evaluation in a community-oriented policing (COP)/ problem
 oriented policing (POP) environment, and (5) the building of community
 partnerships.
 One of the goals of this project was to facilitate the ACSO's
 efforts toward self reflection, and by doing so, become a learning
 organization. To become a learning organization, the organization has
 to be "listening" to its important audiences. In this research, those
 audiences are: (1) citizens and important groups in its service
 communities, and (2) personnel within the organization who are
 responsible for carrying out programs.
 The study was also conducted to gain strategic information from
 the ACSO's environment on both transitive and recursive effects.
 Transitive effect is the extent to which a program is having its
 desired effect in the environment. These effects are typically
 measured by outcome evaluations, though, for this study, the
 researchers sought an assessment of the community in which programs
 are carried out. Recursive effects are the way in which local
 departmental and community actors are reacting and adapting to the
 programs. These effects are often described in the language of a
 process evaluation. Combined, these two effects proved an opportunity
 to look at the programs' intended and unintended effects, and to
 anticipate problems among those who carry out programs.
 In addition to traditional methodologies, that aim to produce
 statistical portraits which allow inferences regarding program
 success, an organizational learning model was used. Learning models
 also view program success as determined as much by how well programs
 are carried out as by how they are perceived and received by their
 intended and sometimes unintended audiences. As learning organization
 methodologies are applied to police organizations, they are changed
 from being about "private policing" engaged in a personal fight
 against crime to "public policing" engaged in dealing with crimes,
 public order problems, and recurring service issues as conceived,
 desired, or disliked by their communities.
 The strategic purpose of this methodology was to increase each
 organization's environmental fit, and to do so by giving commanders
 information that provides systematic public and organizational
feedback on programs and practices.
description: In order to "listen" to citizens and those
 carrying out programs, Boise State University carried out two separate
 surveys, a survey of citizens and a survey of deputies. The purpose of
 the citizen survey was to track any long-term changes in residents'
 perceptions in the following areas since 1997: citizen fear of crime,
 citizen satisfaction with police services, the extent of public
 knowledge about and interest in ideas of community policing, and
 citizens' public service needs. The deputy survey was intended to
 assess: (1) the current state of problem-oriented policing among the
 troops, (2) whether problem-oriented policing has been embraced
 department-wide or was simply a phenomenon in its contract cities, (3)
 examples of successful problem-oriented projects, and (4) strategies
 for enhancing the problem-oriented mandate at the sheriff's
 office. The citizen survey was a random, stratified telephone survey
 administered to 761 Ada County residents who receive patrol services
 from the ACSO. The survey was designed to correspond to a similar
 survey conducted in 1997 (DEVELOPING A PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING MODEL
 IN ADA COUNTY, IDAHO, 1997-1998 [ICPSR 2654]) in the same geographical
 area regarding similar issues. The deputy survey was a self-enumerated
 questionnaire administered to deputies and sergeants of the ACSO
 during a pre-arranged, regular monthly training. Twenty-four deputies
 were present at the first meeting and 30 deputies were in attendance
 at the second meeting, resulting in 54 deputy respondents plus an
 additional five sergeants. Surveys were distributed and returned
during the first hour of training.
description: Both surveys collected demographic data on all of
 the respondents such as ethnicity, gender, and educational level.
 Demographic information was gathered for deputies on their current
 assignments in the ACSO a well as how many years they had been
 employed by ACSO. Demographic variables in the citizen survey also
 included type of occupation and income. The citizen survey further
 examined how safe residents felt in their community, their feelings
 about the ACSO and its Web site, their familiarity with different
 programs associated with the ACSO, and how well they believed these
 programs would work in reducing crime/their feelings on what best
 reduces crime. Information was also gathered on the citizens'
 knowledge about and interest in ideas of community policing, their
 police service needs, and their satisfaction with the ACSO. The deputy
 survey includes variables regarding their perceptions of crime
 problems they had observed, or particular types of calls for
 service. Data are also included about how well problem-oriented
 policing had been embraced, examples of successful problem-oriented
 policing projects, and strategies for enhancing problem-oriented
 policing. Finally, data provide deputies' views about their
 performance evaluation instrument and deputies' views of departmental
relations.
description: Response Rates: For the citizen survey, 761 interviews were
 conducted. Of this, 6 were not useful, with a 99 percent response
 rate. For the deputy survey, of 80 deputies, 54 deputies and 5
 sergeants attended their monthly block training. All 59 completed
their questionnaire for a response rate of 100 percent.
description: Presence of Common Scales: A Likert-type scale was used
description: For the citizen survey, a random, stratified sample of
 residents in rural Ada County, Idaho, who receive patrol services from
 the Ada County Sheriff's Office was used, specifically residents in
 the incorporated communities of Eagle and Kuna. Additional surveys
 were obtained from the community of Star and unincorporated Ada
 County. Individuals who received services from Boise, Meridian, and
 Garden City Police Departments were not surveyed. Telephone prefixes
 were used as geographic indicators to identify the residence of the
 respondents. Within these prefixes, respondents were randomly sampled
 using proportionate sampling techniques. More detailed geographic data
 were obtained during the interview to discount the possible error of
 misdesignating rural and urban respondents. The deputy survey was a
 convenience sample obtained by distributing the self-enumerated
 questionnaire to all deputies and sergeants who attended at least one
of the two regularly scheduled ACSO monthly block training meetings.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: ACSO Citizen Survey
DS2: ACSO Deputy Survey
description: Citizens of rural Ada County, Idaho in 2002, and deputies
employed by the Ada County Sheriff's Office in 2002. Smallest Geographic Unit: city
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); self-enumerated questionnaireAdditional qualitative data were obtained that are not
 included in this collection. These data were obtained through citizen
 and stakeholder focus groups of the residents of Eagle and Kuna,
 Idaho, as well as two focus groups of ACSO deputies for Eagle and
Kuna.