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Responses and Public Data Set The Saratoga Springs Police Task Force Survey was based on model surveys from other municipalities, resources from the Justice Department, and research from peer reviewed publications. After creating the survey, the task force reached out to as many Saratoga Springs community members as possible to maximize participation. Links to the survey were posted on social media, on the city’s website, and publicized through email, postcard handouts, flyers posted in downtown businesses, and a dedicated short url at TogaTF.com. Overall, 1,896 surveys were started. Of those, 1,449 respondents completed the final question asking about overall satisfaction, yielding a completion rate of approximately 76%. The survey was also translated into spanish, with 12 surveys started and 8 completed. We are grateful to all those who took the time to complete the survey, and to those who assisted with the translation. While selection bias is always a concern for open surveys, the demographics are very close to our overall population. For example, the City is 91.5% white1 and the survey respondents were 90.4% White. There were two demographic areas that differed slightly from the city’s population. The first is the gender of respondents. 61.6% of respondents chose “Female”, while 53% of the city’s population is female according to the 2010 census. There was also a modest difference in age, with younger residents underrepresented. For further discussion, please refer to the analysis for Question 4: Age, and Question 5: Gender. The results that follow are statistically significant and broadly representative of the overall City of Saratoga Springs Community. Alchemer.com, an enterprise survey tool, was used to deliver the survey and compile the results. The raw data is available to the public, please refer to Appendix B for more information. 1 https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/saratoga-springs-ny-population (US Census 2019 ACS 5-Year Survey - Table B03002) 2 Introduction If you want to improve service delivery, or anything else for that matter, one of the first steps is to understand where you are today. Without that baseline, it’s hard to tell if things are improving or getting worse over time. This survey is intended to provide that quantitative understanding of how our entire community views the Saratoga Springs Police Department (SSPD). Our hope is that this becomes an annual exercise that can chart the progress we make together. We’ve used “Overall satisfaction with the SSPD” as the primary measure of where we are today. While average satisfaction is critical to measure, it says nothing about how we might increase it over time, nor does it illuminate different segments of the population who may have had very different experiences from the “average”. Accordingly, additional design goals for the survey and this analysis were to: ● Help the SSPD and our community understand which aspects of the services the police provide have the greatest impact on overall satisfaction ● Understand how different parts of our community view the SSPD ● Provide a way for every community member to make their voice heard if they so desire We also took this opportunity to quantify the level of support for 9 different policing changes which are incorporated into the recommendations the task force has proposed to the Saratoga Springs City Council. Please refer to the results for Question 10 for details. The flow of the survey begins with demographics about each respondent, including residence, age, gender, and race. We then ask about the respondent’s views of the police in general, and conclude with questions specifically about the SSPD, including type and level of interactions, and sentiments about different aspects of the SSPD. It concludes with “Overall, how satisfied are you with the Saratoga Springs Police Department?” and an open ended question: “How would you improve the SSPD?” Overall, most respondents are either “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with the SSPD: 3 These results are encouraging at face value. However, not everyone experiences a service the same way, especially services delivered and received by people. We all have good and bad days, encounter different people delivering the service, and do so under different circumstances. Service consistency is a key part of delivery excellence, and that we can measure. While the previous “up and to the right chart” showing overall satisfaction is visually appealing, it is equally true that nearly 1 in 4 people in our community are dissatisfied with the SSPD. Furthermore, If you are part of the one-third of respondents who have experienced physical mistreatment, harassment, or intimidation by a police officer or know someone that has, you are likely to have a very different level of satisfaction with the SSPD. The chart below shows overall satisfaction, but filtered to only those respondents who answered “Yes” to Question 8: Have you or someone you know experienced physical mistreatment, harassment, or intimidation by a police officer: For this subset of respondents, mistreatment at the hands of the police isn’t a hypothetical, it happened to you or someone you know. This analysis attempts to clarify and bring into better focus all the different perspectives on the police in our community, both positive and negative. It also draws some statistical conclusions about which aspects of the SSPD have the biggest impact on overall community satisfaction with how we are policed in the City of Saratoga Springs. 4 1. Residency Overall SSPD Value Percent Count Satisfaction I have a home or reside in the City of Saratoga 57.9% 1,027 3.5 Springs I have a home or reside in Saratoga County 31.4% 557 3.7 I have a home or reside In New York State 6.1% 108 3.1 I have been to the City of Saratoga Springs 3.8% 67 3.0 None of the above 0.8% 14 3.5 Total: 100.0% 1,773 3.5 Please keep in mind that although only city residents vote, county residents are frequent visitors and may work in Saratoga Springs even if they don’t live within the city limits. As such, they are also important stakeholders. For the rest of the questions, we tested each analysis for all respondents, City residents, and City + County residents. Overall, the results were consistent regardless of residency. Where there was a statistical or noteworthy difference, we have called it out for that question. 5 2. Race/Ethnicity (check any that apply) Overall SSPD Value Percent Count Satisfaction Black/African American 6.5% 112 3.4 Asian 2.3% 40 3.0 LatinX (Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish) 4.3% 74 3.2 Middle Eastern/North African 1.2% 20 3.8 Native American 1.4% 25 3.7 Pacific Islander 0.5% 8 3.5 White 90.4% 1,569 3.5 Overall N/A N/A 3.5 As the above table demonstrates, Race/Ethnicity from this survey is a relatively poor predictor of Overall Satisfaction with the SSPD. For example, the difference in satisfaction for “Black/African American” is negligible based on these responses. LatinX satisfaction is below the average, but Middle Eastern/North African is above average. 6 3. I consider myself a member of an historically excluded group (e.g. Person of Color, LGBTQ) Overall SSPD Value Percent Count Satisfaction Yes 22.9% 405 2.9 No 77.1% 1,362 3.7 Totals 100.0% 1,767 3.5 Respondents who consider themselves members of an historically excluded group represent nearly 1 in 4 Saratogians, and were 0.8 points less satisfied with the SSPD overall. As you can see from the charts on the next page, a majority of those who do NOT consider themselves members of an historically excluded group are either Satisfied or Very Satisfied with the SSPD. Only 16.5% were Dissatisfied or Very Dissatisfied. For those who self-identified as members of an historically excluded group, the most frequent response (the mode) for Overall Satisfaction was “Dissatisfied,” with “Very Dissatisfied” rising from 5% to over 20%. In contrast to Race/Ethnicity, the broader question of membership in a historically excluded group does correlate with a lower satisfaction rate. Note that this segment is somewhat bimodal, with “Satisfied” being the least cited response at 10%, while “Very Satisfied” garnered over 20% - as did “Dissatisfied” and “Very Dissatisfied”. 7 Overall Satisfaction: NOT a member of an historically excluded group Overall Satisfaction: IS a member of an historically excluded group 8 4. Age Overall SSPD Value Percent Count Satisfaction < 18 3.5% 61 2.2 19 - 24 10.6% 185 2.3 25-35 14.0% 245 3.3 36-55 37.6% 657 3.8 56-70 23.7% 413 3.7 >70 10.6% 185 3.8 Total 100.0% 1,746 3.5 The age breakdown of respondents mirrors that of the City, with the largest blocks of respondents between 36-55, and 56-70. Overall, the survey over-represents the 36-55 age group by 10% at the expense of fewer respondents under 35 and over 70. According to 2019 US Census Update2, residents under age 19-35 comprise 33% of the population, but only 28% of the respondents. 2 https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=1600000US3665255&tid=ACSST5Y2019.S0101 9 Age is also highly correlated with overall satisfaction. As shown in the chart below, two thirds of community residents aged 24 and under are not satisfied with the SSPD, with only 15% answering “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied.” As the table on the previous page illustrates, satisfaction is highest with the over 70 age group, and goes steadily down with each younger segment.

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