Assessing the Delivery of Community Policing Services in Ada County, Idaho, 2002 (ICPSR 4152)

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Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

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.

Study Design View help for Study Design

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.

Sample View help for Sample

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.

Universe View help for Universe

Citizens of rural Ada County, Idaho in 2002, and deputies employed by the Ada County Sheriff's Office in 2002.

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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

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.

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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.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

A Likert-type scale was used

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Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2006-01-31

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