What happens when police officers and community members interact?
Every day, My90 by Axon hears from thousands of people around the country who share confidential feedback about policing. Our surveys help give voice to community members who called 911 for help, as well as to active police officers on the job. My90 does not send surveys after every 911 call, notably for calls related to sensitive issues such as domestic violence and violent crime.
Survey responses are kept confidential, and agencies are able to quickly receive key statistics on public-police contact and community sentiment. This data enable agencies to improve their training, policies, and procedures while supporting and retaining officers.
In this article, we’ll explain how My90 works and cultivates community trust. While data is useful for each individual agency, it’s also helpful to take a wider view of the data. We analyzed over 30,000 responses from across the nation and share the key findings from that data below.
Let’s get started.
Contents:
How My90 Works
My90 is Axon’s engagement tool that bridges the gaps between law enforcement leaders, their employees, and the communities they serve using confidential surveys and data dashboards.
My90 currently offers post-contact surveys for callers, general community surveys, and employee surveys. My90 project managers meet with agencies monthly to review their data, answer questions, and drive usage.
Here is a common scenario - if a community member calls 911, they may receive a survey link via text message. This survey provides the community member with a chance to provide confidential feedback on how they were treated, their top safety concerns, and where they hope to see the agency improve.
The best part is? These surveys get results. Agencies that use My90 for community engagement are getting quality feedback and responses. Here is what Chief Kevin Davis of the Fairfax County Police Department had to say:
"My90 is a great way to engage with our community to better understand how the public feels about interactions with our agency. Since deploying a trial of My90, we have collected over 3,000 responses in just over 2 months. We have the opportunity to review these results to gain valuable feedback on an ongoing basis from people we have just served."
Meanwhile, agencies that also use My90 for employee engagement and support view it as an effective tool to gauge officer wellness and reduce burnout. Lieutenant Bill Rowley of the Aurora (IL) Police Department says:
“Not only do we have a responsibility to the community, we have a responsibility to our own people.”
Clearly, this data has proven valuable for local agencies. Now let’s take a look at how the data can help build community trust and then analyze results from all over the country.
Cultivating Community Trust
One of the primary goals for public safety agencies today is to build stronger trust inside their communities.
Agencies that use My90 receive customized analyses of their local survey results. The My90 team works closely with law enforcement leaders to help them identify trends, surface positive feedback, and identify opportunities for improvement on a regular basis.
Chief Paul Neudigate of the Virginia Beach Police Department is excited about using My90 to optimize department performance and build trust more quickly and effectively than ever before:
“My90 will help shape policy, training, and community dialogue for VBPD in a manner that far exceeds the speed at which was previously thought possible.”
These agencies have received overwhelmingly positive feedback that has been utilized to understand community needs and experiences, allocate resources, engage the public, and shape department strategies.
In a recent analysis of over 30,000 responses, My90 data found that most respondents who call 911 have reported positive experiences with law enforcement and high degrees of satisfaction with procedural justice measures. Let’s dive into that data further.
National Data Trends - Community Feedback on Police and Public Safety
Here are some of the key trends and data points we identified from over 30,000 responses by community members who provided feedback on police and public safety:
How Community Members feel about Police interactions
My90 agencies report an average 82% satisfaction score, indicating that 82% of service callers who responded to the survey have a positive view of the agency following their interaction with officers and/or staff.
85% of service callers who responded to the survey agree that officers adhere to the principles of procedural justice during their interactions. This includes aspects of feeling respected, understood and listened to by the officer, as well as believing they felt they were treated fairly and that their questions were answered sufficiently.
A breakdown of the individual principles of procedural justice is shown below:
87% of respondents agreed they were treated with respect
87% of respondents understood what the officer told them
84% of respondents agreed they were treated fairly
84% of respondents agreed they were listened to
81% of respondents agreed their questions were answered
My90 also provides the opportunity for community members to share their top safety concerns, as well as any suggestions that would help their agency serve the community more effectively.
Top 5 most common safety concerns:
The most common safety concerns include:
Once an agency identifies their community’s top safety concerns, this information can help them determine how to most effectively schedule patrols and allocate resources to address these concerns.
Top 5 Suggestions for Police
According to the data analysis, My90 community members most commonly suggested the following improvement ideas. These are some of the ways community members believe agencies can more effectively serve their community:
Increase patrol car visibility (35%)
Increase Community Engagement (12%)
Increase Police staffing (10%)
Increase information sharing (8%)
Increase officer training (7%)
Who responded?
My90 surveys include optional demographic questions that allow respondents to self-identify their age, race/ethnicity, and gender. Predominantly, survey respondents identify as white (62%) and tend to be in older age groups, with the most common range being 46-60 years (34%). The distribution of gender identity is fairly even, with a slight majority being female (54%). Below is the comprehensive breakdown of survey respondents' demographics.
Race/Ethnicity
White: 62%
Hispanic / Latino: 14%
Black / African American: 10%
Asian / Asian American: 6%
Not listed: 4%
2 or More Races/Ethnicities: 3%
Native American: 0.4%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.2%
Gender Identity
Location/Size:
This sample set encompasses 19 communities located throughout the United States in Virginia, Texas, California, Washington, Illinois, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Kansas. The following breakdown displays the distribution of agencies by region within the United States:
The size of these communities also varies, ranging from municipalities with approximately 6,500 residents cities of nearly 1.5 million residents. The figure below illustrates the breakdown by size, accompanied by the definitions of small, medium, and large communities.
3 Small Communities = Population < 50,000
9 Medium Communities = Population 50,000 - 150,000
7 Large Communities = Population > 150,000
Call for Service Types:
This data is comprised of responses from community members who called 911 in response to specific incident types.
The types of calls included may vary by department, but My90's guidelines ensure that surveys are only distributed following incidents that are less serious and considered less sensitive. This includes incidents such as calls related to a suspicious person, stolen vehicle, civil matter, disorderly conduct, or noise complaint.
Conversely, the survey excludes incidents such as calls for a deceased subject, mental health issues, overdose, juvenile victim offenses, or sexual assault, as they involve more sensitive circumstances.
Are you interested in your own analysis? My90 can help you engage 911 callers, the general public, and department employees using our confidential surveys.
If you have any questions, including about how to set up a trial of My90, please visit the My90 page or get in touch at my90@axon.com
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