Clearwater Police Department
Customer Satisfaction Survey Results

Released August 21, 2002

Section A asked questions regarding the respondents' own neighborhood.  For the purpose of tabulation responses of "Strongly Agree" and "Agree" were combined into one category.  Responses of "Disagree" and "Strongly Disagree" were also combined into one category.

10. In your opinion what is the most serious crime problem or other police-related problem in your neighborhood?

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Section B asked questions about the respondents' opinions of the Police Department employees they have had contact with, and if they were not satisfied why they were not.

Of the 103 total respondents, 50 or 48.5% reported having a least one contact with police. 

Next respondents were asked to tell what Police Department employee they had contact with the most recently.

Respondents were then asked to rate the employee they had the contact with.  Responses of "Excellent" and "Good" were combined into one category and "Not so Good" and "Poor" were combined into one category.  The results may not always total 100% due to respondent’s only answering part of the questions.

Next the respondents having contact with the Police Department in the past year were asked two specific questions regarding the service they received.

Question B7 asked if the respondent was not satisfied to please tell us why they were not satisfied.

• Got 3 traffic citations.

• Took over 1 hr for officer response to Hit & Run accident. Have heard nothing on suspect vehicle since.

• Report was unavailable at time of request, advised it would take one week

• Citizen believes officer ticketed wrong person.

• Desk officer unfriendly

• Slow response to alarm

• He lied to the judge

• Officer conducted sobriety test; found no reason to ticket me.

• Lack of interest.

• I got a ticket but the officer was doing his job.

• Slow response, didn't care-just spending time on job.

• Reported a prowler, was advised pushing a cart through a neighborhood at 3 a.m. was not a crime.

• Felt officer was wasting time and tax payers money.

Question B8 asked the respondent if they were satisfied with the service to tell us why.

• Prompt response, informative & helpful

• Officer took time to explain.

• Good follow up

• Officers were very professional and courteous.

• Professional yet helpful and courteous

• Handled in a professional manner

• Process was thorough, courteous, and fair

• Responsive

• Need to coordinate with other jurisdictions to help catch bad guys

• Consideration for public safety and professionalism

• Courteous and helpful

• Quick response

• Situation handled in a helpful and prompt manner.

• Officer dealt well with those in accident.

• Helpful, nice fingerprint person

• Polite & understanding, didn't have a bad attitude

• Officer drove me home

• Courteous, pleasant, professional demeanor

• I was speeding.  The officer warned.

• Dept kept business secure after door was left open.

• Alarm unit was informative

• The officer was very friendly, polite and professional.

• They got the illegally parked cars off the grass.

• The problem has seemingly been rectified, as there has been no disturbance since.

• Officer was doing his job.

• Problems with people dumping trash near our home in public parking areas.

• The Sergeant Breest way, very capable and helpful.

Section C asked for overall opinions of the Clearwater Police Department as a law enforcement agency.

The next question asked was how did you form the above opinion of the Clearwater Police Department.

The next three questions were general questions about how the respondent feels about calling the Clearwater Police Department and how the Department handles situations.

Question C6 asked the respondent to comment or make suggestions on how we could improve our service.

• Officers lacking in genuine human interest for citizens.

• Follow-up after the fact.

• Keep up the good work!

• More patrol in neighborhood.

• Better coordination with other law enforcement groups.

• Traffic control on residential streets.

• Additional training directing traffic during large crowd events.

• Nighttime patrol all areas.

• Give officers more legal training.

• Conduct annual meetings for citizen questions.

• Do something about Scientology.

• Keep dogs off beach.

• Ticket motorists for loud music.

• Extra patrol.

• To handle the traffic better.

• Speed enforcement.

• Homeless and Prostitute Problem.

• After traffic accident police do not seen to get traffic moving in a timely manner.

• Customer orientation - police in a world of their own-don't consider anyone else.

• Would like to know the phone number to get information reference crime in my neighborhood.

• Officers should not be allowed to work for Scientologist Church during off duty. Conflict of interest.

• Quicker response.  See them trying to not be seen.

• Protect us from criminals and stop harassing motorist coming & going to work.

• Police are arrogant, aggressive and threatening.  They make people feel like criminals.

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Section D is the demographic section of the survey.

RESIDENT STATUS

AGE BREAKDOWN

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

EDUCATION LEVEL

ETHNIC BACKGROUND

Finally respondents were given an opportunity to write any comments, questions or concerns they may have.  Many respondents wrote voluminous amounts, which were copied and sent directly to the Chief of Police.

• I think Clearwater can be proud of its police department.

• Enjoy living in Clearwater-feel safe.  Thank you for all you do.

• Impressed with survey and I really like Mr. Horne.

• Do a great job!

• Pleased with the police service, however would like to see more patrolling at Island Estates. Have had more theft due to the increase of construction. We have had speeding cars at night as well.

• Problems with tourists, young people. Also police officers hold up traffic instead of getting them out of the way. Traffic is bad enough.

• Officers are intelligent.

• Doesn't like roundabout

• Thanks for being there.

• Please keep Clearwater safe for our children and us!

• Overall the department needs a facelift.

• Thank you for doing such a great job.

• Church of Scientology is becoming too aggressive and should pay taxes.  Trailers that are not mobile should pay higher taxes.

• Good job

• Good job

• Very satisfied with Police.  Courteous and professional and friendly.

• The Police Department is doing a great job!  I just wish that when an office pulls someone over for a traffic violation, that they would leave room for the rest of the traffic to get through.

• The homeless are a problem in this city.  It is a complex problem with no easy answers, but at least the Chief has active ideas.

• Chief is too restrictive on what the officers can do.  Chief needs to spend more time on police business instead of the homeless - this is not his job.

• There's a lack of interest to investigate crime because officers are too busy issuing traffic tickets for minor infractions.  Go back to being concerned for public safety.  Take time to investigate suspicious activities and restore neighborhood watch.

• Vehicles are not coming to a complete stop as they turn from Eldorado onto Mandalay, and vehicles turning from Mandalay on to Eldorado do not yield to on coming traffic.  Cars are also driving at excessive speeds, 30 - 40 mph.

• Stop issuing traffic tickets and issue permits.  Keep traffic to south beach and Sand Key moving.  That is the main problem of beach traffic jams.  When issuing tickets on beach, get out of the way and do not block the lane-traffic is bad enough.