The Greensboro Police Department (GPD) wants more feedback from the public and is using a new tool to get it.
On Wednesday, Sept. 14, the GPD launched a new public survey tool, Blockwise, in partnership with Zencity, a global technology company.
The survey, which will appear on the mobile devices of local residents, is designed to help the GPD better understand local concerns, attitudes and the degree of trust in the GPD. Blockwise is supposed to assist the GPD in more holistically understanding neighborhood safety issues and enhance its responsiveness to community priorities.
Greensboro is the first city in the state and the GPD is the first police department in the South to use this new technology.
Interim Greensboro Police Chief Teresa Biffle said in a press release, “Our officers work in a profession where they can be impacted by what another officer does thousands of miles away. We want to hear the voices of our local residents. This is another way to hear their thoughts and concerns, and that knowledge is important to us.”
The survey will be available through digital ads on news websites, social media platforms and other locations. The survey will initially be available in English and Spanish but more language options are expected to be added. The survey will measure resident satisfaction regarding feelings of safety and trust in police and allow residents to identify key concerns they would like to see addressed by the GPD.
Questions asked on the survey will include:
- When it comes to the threat of crime, how safe do you feel in your neighborhood? Please indicate on a scale of 0 (not safe at all) to 10 (completely safe).
- How much do you agree with this statement? The police in my neighborhood treat local residents with respect. (Level of agreement from 0-10)
- How much do you agree with this statement? The police in my neighborhood listen to and take into account the concerns of local residents. (Level of agreement from 0-10)
- What is the number one issue or problem on your block or in your neighborhood that you would like the police to deal with? Please be specific. [Open-ended response]
The GPD will share the results of the surveys with the public.
So all the survey questions are slanted to blame or place responsibility on the police. Got it. Where is the survey asking council to improve recruiting, salary, and benefits? You can’t hire educated, emotionally intelligent people on low salaries. And yes the whopping 5% just hit the paycheck. That is in lieu of the cost of living raise so it’s really like 2-2.5 raise. Then wait until May.
Hey John you should get the attrition rate per week and their years of service.
So a police officer should walk on egg shells and tip toe around certain neighborhoods. When an officer fullfills his duty in protecting our neighborhood, he gets charged with manslaughter. On November 19 2021 Officer Matthew Hamilton was one of many who went to the house of Mr. Lopez because Mr. Lopez’s girlfriend called them because she feared for her safety. Do we want protection from these crazy people or should the police just stick a pacifier in their mouth
Will one of the language options be Welsh?
Iechyd Da!
Bydde hynnu’n wych
merde
Why not just SOUTHERN English. What’s wrong with the way the questions are asked
The one I had on Facebook mentioned a totally different city than Greensboro, although the ad was for Greensboro. Glitches in it. Lost me on that. I thought it was a hoax until I saw this article.
Surveys always want to know how safe I “feel”. It doesn’t matter how safe I “feel”, what matters is how safe I “am”. Statistics matter. Logic matters. Reason matters. Data matters. Emotions have nothing to do with reality.
Police are not in neighborhoods to make friends. When police are called, there is already a problem. Many residents do not respect police or authority in general but expect to have respect shown to them. Respect is a two-way street. I cannot understand why anyone would think that the police can solve neighborhood problems. The best advice is to obey the law, reject those in your neighborhood who break the law, and if the police have reason to be in a neighborhood, assist the police with solving a crime. It gets very, very old to keep blaming others for one’s own transgressions. It is hurtful to society as a whole.
Who is dumb enough to be clicking pop up ads? Who even looks at pop up ads?
Hammer, did you ask how much this costs? I note that the price tag is missing. I found some pretty ambiguous cost estimates: “Pricing is based on the number of residents in the city. Small cities start at around $15,000 a year. A large city could pay hundreds of thousands of dollars.” So I assume were are at least in the tens of thousands of dollars range if not $100K+.
No matter what the price tag, this is more money down the drain because it left out a key question: “How effective is your police department when it’s missing almost 200 officers?”
Mentions of cost can be found at: https://www.israel21c.org/zencity-helps-cities-pinpoint-issues-that-irk-residents/