To determine how responsive your police department is to individual and community needs, ask the following questions:

Available Information

• Do you have crime prevention literature available?

• Do you provide on-site safety inspections?

- Of businesses?

- Of residences?

• What kind of crime and calls-for-service data is available?
- For the city?
- For areas of the city?
- By address or address range?
- For what time periods are the above available?
- Is any of it available on a web site or on printed material?
- Is there a cost for this material?

Crime Reporting System

• Do you belong to the FBI’s UCR system?

• Is Part II crime data available?

• What criteria are used to establish a burglary occurrence?
- A malicious mischief or vandalism occurrence?
- A criminal trespass occurrence?

• What criteria constitute a motor vehicle theft occurrence?

Resource Allocation

• How do you determine how many officers you need?
- Have you reached your authorized strength?
- Is the officer per capita rate comparable to the US average?
- To averages of cities of comparable size?

• How do you assign officers to different parts of the city?

• How are officers assigned by day of week/hour of day?

• What are your response times to different kinds of calls?

• How do officers enter crime and arrest reports?

• How soon is crime data available for analysis/investigation?