Police Department Conducts Survey With Complainants

By Staff Reporter of the Sun | December 7, 2007

The New York City police department wants its officers' performance to be rated by New Yorkers — but not just any New Yorkers.

Police recruits are surveying about 4,000 New York residents who recently filed complaints against the police to find out what officers are doing right and how they can improve.

Police officials said respondents were picked randomly out of nearly 190,000 people who lodged complaints against the police from July to September.

Preliminary results of the "citizen satisfaction survey," which has had a 23% response rate so far of 932 responses, was overwhelmingly positive when it came to questions about police professionalism and knowledge.

Among complainants who answered the survey, 45% said they were more satisfied after their interaction with police, while 12% said they were less so.

Correction from December 10, 2007:

Crimes committed by civilians were the subject of complaints filed by residents surveyed by police in a citizen satisfaction survey. The subject of the complaints were misstated in an article on page 3 of the December 7-9 New York Sun.