- Citizens Satisfaction Survey - Business
- Citizens Satisfaction Survey - Resident
- Victim/Witness Survey
2017 Annual Satisfaction Survey
The Warwick Police Department conducted its first Annual Satisfaction Survey using the Survey Monkey online survey tool. The purpose of the survey is to document citizen perception of and satisfaction with overall department performance, overall competence of employees, attitudes and behavior towards citizens, safety and security within the City, and recommendations and suggestions for improvement. Previously the survey was conducted triennially.
To view the all the results and comments from all three surveys follow the links at the bottom.
The Citizens Satisfaction Survey is always open to the public for participation. Despite efforts to gain participation in the past, this survey has seen a decline in respondents over the past three years. During the three year time frame of 2014 through 2016 the survey had 21 respondents, which was a steep decline from the 2013 analysis which saw 117 respondents. For the first Annual Satisfaction Survey we made a push soliciting businesses, schools and organizations to participate through an email campaign. We also used FaceBook and Twitter to push our survey as well as an article in the Warwick Beacon. The results were 326 respondents broken down as 268 Residence surveys, 51 Business surveys and 7 Victim/Witness surveys.
Demographics
- The City of Warwick has an estimated population of 81,579
-Persons under 18: 19.1%
-Persons 65 years or older: 17.1%
- The City of Warwick has 37,730 Housing Units, 72.7% of which are owner occupied
- 7% of Warwick residents over the age of 25 are High School graduates or higher
- The median value of owner-occupied homes is $207,700
- There are 8,299 businesses in the City of Warwick
- The City of Warwick is 35.05 square miles
Survey Results
Respondent Demographics
Age Sex
18-30 8% Male 48%
31-50 48% Female 52%
51-70 38%
71+ 6%
Housing
Own Home 87%
Rents 13%
72% of resident respondents have lived in the city for 10+ years.
68% of the business respondents employ 22 or more people .
Resident/Business Survey
These are the highlights and a summary of the comments. Below is a link that will take you to the results for each question.
93% of respondents feel safe in their home or business.
90% feel safe walking the city streets.
93% agree the Warwick police do a good job keeping the city safe.
93% agree the police in Warwick are courteous.
85% agree the police do their jobs to the best of their ability.
85% agree the police treat people fair and just.
81% agree the police keep the citizens informed of criminal activity.
88% agree the police conduct themselves professionally.
91% have public confidence in the Warwick police.
74% agree the police respond promptly to calls for service; 11% disagree.
83% are satisfied with the quality of life in the city; 15% are not.
85% believe illegal dumping is at least somewhat of a problem.
45% believe parking/traffic/speeding is somewhat of a problem; 44% believe it is very much of a problem.
65% believe loitering is at least somewhat of a problem.
92% believe theft and burglary are at least somewhat of a problem.
41% believe noise is at least somewhat of a problem; 46% do not believe it is a problem at all.
84% believe vandalism is at least somewhat of a problem.
54% believe drug use and drug dealing are somewhat of a problem; 36% believe it is very much of a problem.
87% believe domestic violence is at least somewhat of a problem.
29% believe violent crime is not a problem; 66% believe it is somewhat of a problem; and 6% believe it is very much of a problem.
59% of the resident respondents have had contact with a Warwick police officer in the last year; 82% of the business respondents have had contact.
151 respondents left comments in the optional comment section in response to the question “Do you have any recommendations and suggestions for improvements at the Warwick Police Department?”
A summary of the positives:
- Many comments complimenting the Warwick Police, their conduct and overall performance and service to the community (28)
- We are doing well raising community awareness on some issues (2)
A summary of the recommendations:
- Traffic issues from parking, speeding, stop lights and signs and jay walking are by far our biggest problem according to the respondents, with speeding being the top complaint, especially in the neighborhoods and side streets (45)
- Our next largest area of concern was the wait time for officers in the lobby, a lack of empathy or understanding by call takers on the phone or the initial reception into the building. There is a general lack of welcome in the lobby or on the phone, a lack of concern of the person’s problem and the amount of time to wait for an answer (15)
- Recommendations that we patrol the neighborhoods more, initiate more positive contacts in a community policing fashion and more police in the schools (14)
- Complaints of officers not directing traffic at road construction sites or accident sites but doing other things such as texting, sitting or not watching the traffic (9)
- Requests for quicker information, including fixing our CrimeReports.com, the arrest log and increasing our social media output (8)
- Comments about officers sleeping or hiding in their cars, not being visible to the public (6)
- Requests to enforce quality of life crimes and issues such as noise (5), open fires (4), pan handling and homeless (4) and unkempt properties (3)
Victim/Witness Survey
7 persons took our Victim/Witness survey and all 7 identified as a victim of a crime. No demographic data was asked in this survey.
This is a very small sampling as we had 2,342 persons listed as victims in 2017 making this a sampling size of .3%. This affects the reliability of the responses as representative of the whole.
There were no optional comments left by the respondents of this survey.
A summary of the positives:
- 67% were very satisfied with their initial police contact and the officer’s concern for their situation
- 50% felt the resource information (advocates, community agencies, social services) provided was very helpful
- 65% stated the initial officer allowed sufficient time to talk about their situation
A summary of the negatives:
- 67% stated the officer did not provide resource information at all (advocates, community agencies, social services)
- 60% stated the officer did not explain the subsequent steps involved in processing their case after the initial report
- 65% stated the officer did not explain the current charges and potential sentences for their case
- 67% stated they were not notified of the first court appearance after an arrest
- 40% stated they were not notified of the arrest
- 83% were not kept informed on the status of their investigation
- 50% had no satisfaction at all with the information and assistance provided by the Prosecution Division
- 100% of the respondents were unfamiliar with RI-VINE (Victim Information & Notification Everyday)
Summation: These victims were well satisfied with our initial officer’s conduct, concern and attention given. We should improve our giving of information resources to include RI-VINE awareness, provide more information about the course of an investigation and its possible outcomes, make arrest notifications as required and conduct more follow-up with case status during the investigatory and prosecution stages.
