Citizen survey shows dropping police, road satisfaction

The 2015 citizen survey in Columbia shows a trend city manager Mike Matthes has tried to grapple with for years.

The survey of 1,016 people show a continuing drop in satisfaction of the city’s police department – now at an all-time low since the city began surveying people in 2003. Survey takers reported a 59-percent satisfaction with the department, down more than 20 percentage points since 2005. They reported a desire for better crime prevention and response times.

Matthes talked about the drop in his State of the City address on June 22. While he said crime in the city has remained within the expected “standard deviation,” he hoped better community outreach from the department would help improve people’s perception, and prevent crime, as well. The newly-formed Community Outreach Unit moved into its new headquarters Friday at Wynwood Townhouses on Aztec Boulevard.

Matthes said survey takers reported positive interactions with police, but had concerns with the size of the department and its overall operation.

“Few had ever been affected by crime, and many wanted to see more officers in the community,” Matthes said.

Those involved in the survey overwhelmingly chose public safety as a top four priority, with nearly seven of ten people choosing it as their number one priority. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they were satisfied with feelings of safety in town, with a quarter of the whole group saying they did not feel safe in downtown Columbia at night. Dissatisfaction or neutral feelings about fire protection and service remained around 13 percent for 2015. Only 88 of the 1,016 reported they were the victims of a crime in Columbia.

For the first time since 2003, the city conducted a focus group to tackle the public safety perceptions. The nineteen person group were mostly supportive of the department, lauding some officers for professionalism. However, many seemed concerned that growth of the city outpaced growth of the department, leading to “unacceptable” wait times for service, as one group member put it. Others questioned the morale of the department as a whole.

“I feel like there’s a disconnect between upper management and the officers,” one member said.

“I think the police department is understaffed, but just hiring more people isn’t the answer,” another comment said. “Morale in the police department needs to improve.”

The group members also said local media coverage of crime, as well as national incidents, including mass shootings, affect some feelings of safety.

Eighty-two percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed city employees were “courteous and polite” when working with them.

Maintenance and repair of city streets saw the biggest drop in satisfaction from 2014 to 2015, at 13 points. Two-thirds of respondents were either neutral or dissatisfied with city streets, most apparent with feelings about its upkeep. While snow removal satisfaction remained high on major streets, people were far more dissatisfied with removal on neighborhood streets.