NEW POLL: Community Responder Units Get Broad Bipartisan Support
Last year, Albuquerque, New Mexico, launched the country’s first community safety department—an unarmed civilian force that takes a public health approach to protecting public safety. Albuquerque Community Safety deploys different types of first responders, including a “community responder” division, which “responds to minor injuries or incapacitation, abandoned vehicles, non-injury accidents, needle pickups, or other calls for service in the community.”
The disaggregated functions that community responders serve exist in a number of other cities across the country. For example, Minneapolis deploys unarmed civilian traffic control officers to handle most parking disputes. And Safer Cities recently covered needle clean-up programs in cities like Seattle and Boston. But Albuquerque appears to be singular in terms of bundling these functions and tasking a dedicated civilian division to address them.
Safer Cities conducted a poll to gauge how the concept of a community responder unit would be received by voters across the country. Our survey of likely voters nationally, conducted in partnership with Data For Progress (methodology), found:
78% of voters support the creation of a Community Safety Responder Unit where they live. Moreover, our results show that at least 7 of 10 voters support community responders across party, race, gender, age, and educational attainment:
Note: Before asking the question, we gave respondents a brief description of what these units do: “Community Safety Responders are unarmed public safety officials with backgrounds in fields such as public health, social work, and conflict resolution. Community Safety Responders handle non-emergency situations, such as picking up needles and other drug equipment from sidewalks and parks, checking on abandoned or unattended vehicles, and responding to minor car accidents and parking disputes.” We provided this information since it is extremely unlikely that the typical voter knows what such a unit does. We then asked: Would you support or oppose creating a Community Safety Responder Unit where you live?
81% of voters agreed that community responders serve an important function by “handling non-emergency situations like parking disputes, minor car accidents, or checking on unattended vehicles without requiring an armed police officer to respond.”
We asked: Below is a list of functions that a Community Safety Responder Unit performs. For each, say how important or unimportant you think it is. — Handling non-emergency situations like parking disputes, minor car accidents, or checking on unattended vehicles without requiring an armed police officer to respond.
80% of voters agreed that community responders serve an important function by “making the city safer by picking up needles in parks, sidewalks, and schools.”
We asked: Below is a list of functions that a Community Safety Responder Unit performs. For each, say how important or unimportant you think it is. — Making the city safer by picking up needles in parks, sidewalks, and schools.
TL;DR: Lawmakers should feel comfortable exploring the creation of a community responder unit where they live—like the one that exists in Albuquerque—knowing that widespread support for such a unit exists across party, race, gender, age, and educational attainment.
