Survey: Residents satisfied with Dublin police

ThisWeek News – July 13, 2016

The majority of Dublin’s residents say they feel safe in their city.

According to a survey delivered by the Dublin Police Department, 86 percent of those responding said they feel very safe living in Dublin and 12 percent said they feel somewhat safe.

Police Chief Heinz von Eckartsberg said 6,000 randomly selected residents 18 years or older were given the opportunity to take the online survey.

Of those, 412 residents provided usable data, a 7 percent response rate. The department conducts the survey every three years.

The department uses Saperstein Associates and paid $11,950 for this year’s survey.

Von Eckartsberg said the results are similar to the 2013 survey. New to this year’s survey was a question about drug-prevention education. Seventy-six percent of responders said they were very satisfied with it, while 20 percent said they were satisfied.

“It’s very, very prominent in our minds because it’s actually one of our primary goals,” von Eckartsberg said.

He said the department takes opiate addiction seriously.

A large number of crimes are tied to opiate addiction, and the issue has grown since three years ago.

Thirty-one percent of those surveyed cited resolving major crimes and emergencies as their most important issue. Reducing property crimes was a close second, at 26 percent.

Similarly, crime-reduction programs were rated as the most important programming, at 42 percent.

Results indicated:

* A 95 percent or above satisfaction rate for the school resource officer program, readiness to deal with major crimes and emergencies and the Vacation House Watch program.

* A 93 or above satisfaction rate for the department’s ability to solve crime, crime prevention, response time to calls and overall customer service.

* A 90 or above satisfaction rate for visible police patrol and traffic enforcement.

Von Eckartsberg said the survey results confirm what the department is doing. The public input is used when the department forms annual goals, which translates into budgeting.

“We don’t want to be spending money in areas where we don’t believe … the money’s going to be well-spent,” he said.

City Manager Dana McDaniel said he viewed the results as being consistent with previous surveys.

He said city officials appreciate the department as well as the residents’ confidence in it.