Policing: What Should We Do to Ensure Fair Treatment and Keep Neighborhoods Safe for Everyone? Survey

For the following two statements, do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree, or are you unsure about them?

1.Especially with the murder and violent crime rates increasing in cities in the US, we need more police officers on the streets.

2.Most police officers are dedicated public servants; officers like the one who killed George Floyd are the exception, not the rule.

3.In your own community, would you say there should be more, fewer, or about the same number of police officers?

More

Fewer

Same

Not Sure

4.Which THREE actions do you most strongly SUPPORT or consider most vital?

Require officers to live in the communities they serve so they develop respect for diverse residents and strong ties to all the people they serve.

Provide more counseling for law enforcement officers and other first responders to help them handle the pressures of the job.

Fire officers who fail to report suspected police misconduct; reward and promote those who do.

End arrests and ticketing for marijuana possession and other low-level offenses like prostitution, solicitation, trespassing, and public urination.

Conduct background checks to determine if a potential officer has a history of displaying racial bias.

Respond to domestic disturbances with teams of social workers, mental health professionals, and drug counselors who can get involved before situations escalate.

Congress should broaden the ability for people to sue individual police officers for physical abuse and mental stress.

Hire more unarmed public safety professionals, like parking enforcement officers or traffic wardens, to enforce traffic laws and other minor violations.

Overhaul police education programs to make training about racial bias, or racial prejudice, equally as important as weapons training so officers have the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully engage the communities they serve.

Create diverse, multiracial, and independent civilian review boards that can investigate complaints from the public and recommend an officer’s removal if warranted.

Diversify the police force by recruiting and retaining officers of various backgrounds.

Make police disciplinary records available in a public database so journalists and the community have access to them and officers with repeated complaints won’t be hired elsewhere.

Increase training in de-escalation and teach officers to draw their guns less often.

Permit the US Justice Department to investigate and take over police departments where there is a pattern of racist practices or racially biased enforcement.

Require police officers to wear body cameras, turn them on during every encounter with the public, and release the full recordings to the public when there are charges of police misconduct.

6.Are there any actions above you still feel UNSURE about?

7.What else could be done at the community, state, or national level to address this problem?

8.Did you talk about aspects of the issue you hadn’t considered before?

Yes

No

If so, please explain.

9.Were there ideas or proposals that you tended to favor coming into the forum that you now have second thoughts about?

Yes

No

If so, please explain.

11.Are you male or female?

Male

Female

Other (please specify)

14.In what type of community do you live?

City/Urban

Suburban

Rural

15.What is your 5-digit zipcode?

16.In what state or U.S. territory do you live?

17.What issue would you like to see covered in a future forum?

Policing: What Should We Do to Ensure Fair Treatment and Keep Neighborhoods Safe for Everyone?

Community Forum Worksheet