WS - E - Conducting Community Surveys

in high crime areas where the risks to personal safety may be high. Typically, telephone surveys are inexpensive relative to other types of survey research, and response rates to telephone surveys are generally higher. Despite the strengths of telephone surveys, there are some limitations which should not be overlooked. Although the vast majority of Americans have telephones in their homes, some do not, and in some neighborhoods the proportion of households with phones is low. Telephone surveys are inherently biased against lower-income citizens, since a larger proportion of low-income families have no telephone. Telephone surveys may also underrepresent persons with language barriers, in some ethnic groups or in age groups like the very young or the very old. Some groups such as the homeless, young inner-city males, or college students may be severely underrepresented in phone surveys. Since these persons may have different views of police service or different exposure to crime, this inherent bias in telephone survey research should be recognized throughout the survey process. There are procedures to weight demographic groups which are not fully represented in telephone surveys. These procedures are discussed later in this guide. Overcoming fears of surveys Conducting surveys can be intimidating and for some good reasons. The results of community surveys come under a great deal of scrutiny by media, politicians, community groups, academicians, and police leaders. If police or sheriff’s departments develop their own surveys, they have to be concerned about their perceived bias as survey administrators. Surveys can be viewed as self-serving devices, designed to make the police look good, especially if there are concerns about police brutality, police attention to minority areas or police treatment of minorities, and other sensitive issues. To address perceived bias, police must focus attention on every aspect of survey research, including question wording, field testing of questionnaires to identify problems, and other processes of survey development. In addition, police must identify an unbiased sampling frame and develop procedures for contacting prospective respondents. This is a big task & one with which a local university or college can assist. Using the CVS and a standardized sampling procedure will relieve many of the external and internal pressures on police in conducting surveys. By following sound sampling procedures, city-level findings can be comparable to those of other jurisdictions. Replicating the survey on a periodic basis will provide police agencies with regular and reliable information about citizens' views of crime and public safety. Conducting Community Surveys 5