SEATTLE —No two neighborhoods are alike when it comes to perceptions of public safety, and a survey in Seattle is measuring those differences to help police and city leaders shape crime-fighting strategies.
“Seattle is the only city that I’m aware of that has consistently for 11 years collected data on community perceptions of public safety,” said Seattle University Professor Jacqueline Helfgott, whose team at the Department of Criminal Justice, Criminology & Forensics administers the annualSeattle Public Safety Survey.
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Helfgott works with Seattle University graduate and undergraduate students to analyze the survey results to pinpoint top crime concerns as well as perceptions of public safety at the citywide, precinct, and neighborhood levels.
“The reality of crime is that it is a combination of people’s perceptions of crime and actual incidents or crime statistics,” Helfgott said. “In many respects, people’s perceptions of crime matter more than the actual incidents of crime.”
The results help shape theMicro Community Policing Plansfor each of the city’s 58 neighborhoods, which Seattle police use to tailor their patrol responses. When compared alongside crime data, the community perceptions that the survey measures can give a more accurate picture of the impact crime has on an area, according to researchers.
At the end of the survey, participants are invited to share any additional observations they have about their communities, which researchers then group into themes.
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“The last two years, traffic safety has been the number one top concern citywide,” Helfgott said.
“Gun violence and youth violence rose up last year as a theme that was somewhat different than prior years.”
The survey is open through Nov. 30 to anyone who lives or works in Seattle. It takes about 20 minutes to complete and is available in several languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, Korean, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.Survey results will be provided to the SPD ahead of community-police dialogues scheduled for March–August 2026. This can provide talking points for a series of discussions involving community members and police staff.
트위터 공유: 시애틀 시민 안전 목소리로 범죄 전략 새롭게 그린다