The Morgan Hill police department wants to know if residents and visitors feel safe and how much confidence they have in local officers, and the city plans to conduct an extensive survey to gather these and other data.
Police Chief David Swing said the department will use the results to focus law enforcement or prevention efforts on certain neighborhoods or within certain demographic groups who do not feel safe, and to determine why certain people may or may not trust their police department.
“I’ve been here 17 years, and it’s not a question we’ve asked the community before,” Swing said. “I’m anxious to see what the results are. Morgan Hill is a safe community, and I think most people will have trust and confidence in the police department.”
The City Council will consider funding the survey at Wednesday’s meeting. After 10 public research firms responded to the city’s initial request for proposals, Swing will recommend the council hire Godbe Research to conduct the survey at a cost of $37,500.
Aside from gauging residents’ and visitors’ feelings of safety and their trust in the local police, the survey will be used as an economic development research tool.
The first part of the survey will reach out to a sample of residents by telephone, and the initial results of that effort will be available by the end of this year, according to city staff.
The next part of the survey will target visitors and patrons at city recreation facilities such as the Centennial Recreation Center and the Outdoor Sports Center, as well as downtown shops and restaurants. That will likely be conducted next spring and summer.
The effort to conduct such a far-reaching survey has been in the works for more than a year, since Swing included an “outcome based” public safety strategy in the department’s work plan.
That strategy, which was approved by the council earlier this year, includes four broad outcomes the department should strive for, as well as measurement and follow-up criteria for each. It is a long-term plan, envisioned to apply from 2013 to 2016, Swing said.
The four outcomes in the long-term strategy are to reduce the incidents of crime and traffic collisions; increase trust and confidence in the police department; increase the feeling of safety; and increase the proficiency of staff.
If approved by the council, the forthcoming survey will begin the measurement process for at least two of those outcomes. Swing anticipates the data will be able to be broken down by neighborhood or other geographic areas, as well as demographic groups.
Mayor Steve Tate said the purpose of the survey is to establish a “baseline opinion” from which police and city staff can target their efforts to improve public safety and people’s perception of safety.
Although Tate said he hopes the results will show that residents and visitors in Morgan Hill feel safe, he said he could understand if they don’t with at least two high-profile violent crimes happening in the last year – the murder of 14-year-old Tara Romero in November, and the disappearance and suspected murder of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar in March.
The mayor lauded the survey effort as supportive of Chief Swing’s overall desire to use more “community policing” and to encourage more interaction with the public since Swing was appointed to his current position in Dec. 2010. Tate added that the police department has made significant strides in involving the community in public safety since then, with the incorporation of programs like the Citizens Police Academy and Volunteers in Policing.
“One of the benefits (of a survey) is it communicates to the public that we do care,” Tate said. “Having a survey, people will be made more aware of what we’re doing or how they could get involved.”
Councilman Larry Carr said while out “on the campaign trail” in recent weeks he has learned from many residents that they feel safe in Morgan Hill, and they have a high degree of confidence in officers. Carr also praised efforts like this summer’s National Night Out and other events conducted by the police to interact with the public on their terms.
“I see officers engaging every day, particularly with young people, in positive ways,” Carr said.
City staff and consultants from Godbe Research will determine what questions to ask on the survey following the council’s approval, Swing added.
At least one resident, who attended a series of public workshops held by the police department last year when the long-term outcome-based plan was being crafted, said he feels safe and trusts the officers he has been in contact with. But the resident, Doug Muirhead, said he would like to see more “casual” efforts by the police to interact with residents and visitors, as opposed to the mostly reactive interaction he notices now – such as in response to a reported crime or traffic incident.
“I personally am impressed with (Swing) and his attempts to go out and get a fairly broad-based set of inputs. But I’m not so happy with the lack of visibility (of officers) while they develop these things,” said Muirhead. “I mentioned (at the workshops) that I didn’t understand why they didn’t make themselves available at smaller events, outside grocery stores – just an officer or two available (for passersby) to talk to. Because I don’t have a real reason to deal with police, I’m trying to think of ways they could be available on a casual basis without some big, formal survey.”
Muirhead, who is retired, noted that his neighborhood off Lacrosse Drive is safe, and he and his neighbors “don’t see the police all that often.”
He added his biggest gripe with local public safety efforts is their increasing use of technology that makes it easier for police to find and arrest crooks, but at the same time poses a possible threat to law-abiding residents’ civil liberties or risk being used for “data mining.” This includes the use of new license plate scanners affixed to some Morgan Hill patrol cars, which can read the license plates of parked or moving vehicles and run them through a database to determine if the car is stolen or wanted; and the placement of 24-hour surveillance cameras in public parks.
Muirhead added his concerns about these devices have fallen on deaf ears at City Hall, as the council has approved them without mentioning their possible misuse.
If the council approves the survey contract Wednesday, city staff expect to be able to present the initial results of the resident survey to the council by January 2013. The visitors’ survey will take place in spring and summer of 2013, with those results likely to be presented to the council in July 2013.
The police department included $30,000 in its 2012-2013 budget for the survey, and staff proposed using $7,500 from the general fund reserve to cover the balance of the contract costs.
The council meeting will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall council chambers, 17555 Peak Ave.
