For the past two weeks, Safer Cities described new polling results which showed that voters:
- Overwhelmingly would support the creation of an Albuquerque-style Community Safety Department where they live;
- Strongly prefer a single department that houses and coordinates a range of unarmed first responder services, and
- Believe such a department should respond to a range of issues including mental health crises; homelessness, drug overdoses, picking-up needles from public spaces, and providing a highly visible uniformed presence at the street level to deter low level crime.
This week, we continue our deep dive into public opinion on community safety departments by analyzing why voters support community safety departments:
- 89% of voters agree that “community safety departments allow police departments to focus on solving serious crimes.”
- 84% of voters agree that “community safety departments will meet unmet needs because some people who need help are too scared to call 911 because they’re scared of the police.”
- 81% of voters agree that “community safety departments reduce the likelihood that a mental health crisis will result in injury or death.”
- Approximately three-in-four voters agree that community safety departments make cities safer.
We split participants into two groups to determine whether framing the question in terms of projected safety versus projected feelings of safety would significantly alter the results. It didn’t.
- 76% agree: “My city would be safer if we had a community safety department.”
- 74% agree: “My city would feel safer if we had a community safety department.”
- Roughly seven-in-ten voters agree that community safety departments make cities more orderly.
We split participants into two groups to determine whether framing the question in terms or projected order versus projected feelings of order would significantly alter the results. It didn’t.
- 72% agree: “My city would be more orderly if we had a community safety department.”
- 73% agree: “My city would feel more orderly if we had a community safety department.”
