Police get high overall marks

By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer
04/04/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT

STAMFORD - An easy majority of Stamford residents who responded to a police survey feel safe, and about half think police handle their jobs extremely well, but minorities gave police lower ratings in most categories.

The results were based on a survey of 1,823 residents earlier this year. Respondents were chosen at random and received surveys in the mail or picked them up at community centers.

The department mailed about 10,000 surveys, and an independent marketing company, RTi Market Research of Stamford, analyzed the results and prepared the 30-page report released yesterday.

More than 92 percent of residents feel safe at home and about 75 percent feel safe alone in their neighborhoods after dark, the survey found.

A slight majority of residents - 57 percent - rated officers "excellent" or "very good" on their job performance.

A similar percentage said officers were "excellent" or "very good" when it comes to being helpful, acting with professionalism, being responsive and understanding cultural differences, the survey found.

The results "reaffirm what we already believed - that the men and women of the Stamford Police Department are doing a great job and that Stamford is a very safe community," Lt. Sean Cooney, a police spokesman, said in a statement.

Stamford was the third-safest city in the United States last year, according to FBI statistics.

The city's crime rate has been far lower than rates in Connecticut's other major cities for years, statistics show.

"I thought it was pretty favorable for the city," said Adele Gordon, a member of the Police Commission. "The general feeling is that police are pretty well-respected."

But the survey reveals that minorities are less comfortable than whites with the police department and the amount of crime.

"There is always room for improvement" in minority relations, Gordon said.

Hispanics and blacks gave police lower rankings in most categories concerning professionalism and officer behavior.

Only 25 percent of Hispanics and 38 percent of blacks rated police "excellent" or "very good" on sensitivity to cultural backgrounds, compared with 50 percent of white respondents.

The gap was similar for fairness of officers, and smaller but significant in other categories, such as responsiveness and helpfulness.

Black respondents said they were more concerned about drug dealing, gang violence and weapons than other cultural groups, the survey found.

Sixty-five percent of blacks labeled gang violence "extremely" or "very" bothersome, compared with 50 percent of whites and 49 percent of Hispanics, the survey found.

Whites rated traffic their No. 1 safety concern - 62 percent said traffic problems were extremely or very bothersome.

Black respondents rated traffic their 10th most pressing concern, behind robberies, thefts, burglaries, drugs and violent crimes, the survey found.

Minorities rated police higher than whites in some categories. Black respondents gave police the best marks for their responses to assault, domestic violence, burglary, robbery and other serious crimes, the survey found.

Forty-nine percent of black respondents thought police responded "extremely well" or "very well" to assaults, compared with 45 percent of whites and 31 percent of Hispanics.

Blacks and Hispanics said they feel safer downtown at night than whites.

But Hispanics consistently gave police the worst reviews for their responses to 27 crimes listed in the survey.

In general, fewer than half of residents think police respond extremely well or very well to the listed crimes, the survey found.

One-third or fewer of respondents thought police responded "extremely well" or "very well" to 16 of the 27 listed crimes.

The report released yesterday did not give the percentage who checked off the three other ratings - "fairly well," "not very well," or "not well at all."

Residents were most dissatisfied with police response to quality-of-life problems such as littering, noise complaints, graffiti and parking, the survey found.

Gordon said that was encouraging, since police should spend the most time responding to serious crimes.

"That's what they are here for," Gordon said.

The average household income of all respondents was $102,200, according to the results released yesterday, and the average age of respondents was 52.6 years.