Survey of Community Expectations of Police Service - A Pilot Study - Law Enforcement Training Project, First Report

• NCJ Number: 69688
• Author(s): R Green; G Schaeffer; J O Finckenauer
• Date Published: 1969
• Length: 31 pages
• Grant Number(s): NI-142
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: New Jersey Dept of Law and Public Safety; New Jersey Dept of Community Affairs
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A survey of community expectations of police service was conducted in Hamilton, N.J., as a part of a larger project to develop police training curricula in terms of community-perceived functions and tasks.

Abstract

Field interviews and surveys were conducted in September and October 1968 with a randomly selected sample of 103 respondents under the auspices of the Police Training Commission of the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. The data gathering instrument consisted of the Police Activity Scale, the Propolice Index, the Police Service Index, and a series of structured, open-ended questions. The scales and indices were devised to obtain community respondents' ratings of police activities, to measure attitudes toward police, and to determine the respondents' perceptions of the role of the police in relation to the community power structure. A series of open-ended questions in the questionnaire were designed to determine respondents' personal experiences with the police. An additional series of structured, open-ended questions tapped respondents' ideas on the important functions and tasks of the police in the community from respondents' points of view as parents, homeowners, jobholders, and other community members. Findings indicated a deep community concern with juvenile problems, crime prevention, and good police-community relations. A special section discusses findings on attitudes toward the police as indicated by the Propolice Index and correlated to personal police experiences. Of the 72 respondents having experiences with the police, 46 indicated the experience left a favorable impression. Although 22 of the 72 respondents said they disliked some things that police officers did, most held overall positive attitudes toward the police. It is concluded that, contrary to generally accepted belief, favorable experiences with the police are not needed to produce favorable attitudes. Detailed survey results are presented in several data tables.