Police Services Study, Phase II, 1977: Rochester, St. Louis, and St. Petersburg
Description
The data for this study were collected in order to examine
the delivery of police services in selected
neighborhoods. Performances of police agencies organized in different
ways were compared as they delivered services to different sets of
comparable neighborhoods. For Part 1, Citizen Debriefing Data, data
were drawn from telephone interviews conducted with citizens who were
involved in police-citizen encounters or who requested police services
during the observed shifts. The file contains data on the citizens
involved in observed encounters, their satisfaction with the delivered
services, and neighborhood characteristics. This file includes
variables such as the type of incident, estimated property loss,
police response time, type of action taken by police, citizen
satisfaction with the handling of the problem by police, reasons for
dissatisfaction, the emotional state of the citizen during the
encounter, whom the officers referred the citizen to for help, the
citizen's prior contacts with police, and the citizen's education,
age, sex, and total family income. Part 2, General Shift Information,
contains data describing the shift (i.e., the eight-hour tour of duty
to which the officers were assigned), the officers, and the events
occurring during an observed shift. This file includes such variables
as the total number of encounters, a breakdown of dispatched runs by
type, the number of contacts with other officers, the number of
contacts with non-police support units, officer discretion in taking
legal action, and officer attitudes on patrol styles and
activities. Part 3, Police Encounters Data, describes police
encounters observed by the research team during selected shifts. It
consists of information describing the officers' role in encounters
with citizens observed during a shift and their demeanor toward the
citizens involved. The file includes variables such as the type of
encounter, how the encounter began, whether the citizens involved
possessed a weapon, the encounter location, what other agencies were
present during the encounter and when they arrived, police actions
during the encounter, the role of citizens involved in the encounter,
the demeanor of the officer toward the citizens during the encounter,
actions taken by the citizens, which services were requested by the
citizens, and how the observer affected the encounter. Part 4,
Victimization Survey Data, examined citizen attitudes about the police and
crime in their neighborhoods. The data were obtained through telephone
interviews conducted by trained interviewers. These interviews
followed a standard questionnaire designed by the project
leaders. Variables include perceived risk of victimization,
evaluations of the delivery of police services, household
victimization occurring in the previous year, actions taken by
citizens in response to crime, and demographic characteristics of the
neighborhood.