宾州大学公园. — The results of a confidential university-wide survey show that the majority of Penn State employee and student participants feel safe on campus and view Penn State police officers favorably.
The survey was conducted in the fall of 2021 as a standard part of the police department’s accreditation process through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. 调查结果可在网上查询 完整的聚合仪表板其中包括2019年和2021年的数据. 共有2950名受访者，其中42人.2%是学生，35%是学生.3%为雇员. 总体回复率为11%.
“谨代表大学警察和公共安全部门, I want to thank everyone who took the time to participate in this survey,查理·诺夫辛格说, 大学警察和公共安全副校长. “Participants have provided valuable feedback that we will use to improve our programs and services, 我们的部门. 我们对此感到自豪, 整体, 宾州州立大学社区对我们的警察很有好感, 但我们也认识到，我们也有可以改进的地方, 我们致力于加强这些领域.”
The vast majority of respondents from 22 campuses (84%) views their campus as safe, however 14% indicated there are locations and/or times of day where they have felt unsafe on campus, 回答从“晚上的任何地方”到停车场, 校园里的特定建筑.
“我们感谢员工和学生的反馈, 哪些地方让人感到不安全,诺夫辛格说. “这是有价值的信息, 强调这类调查的重要性, and we will work closely with other units at Penn State to assess how areas noted in the survey can be strengthened to help employees and students feel safer while in these locations.”
大学警察将继续与物理安全部门合作, the Office of Physical Plant and other key campus stakeh老s to review areas in which respondents feel less safe on campus. 另外, University Police will review programming and services to meet the needs of each campus community based upon feedback from each individual campus. 例如, many respondents requested an increase in police visibility and engagement on their campus, 包括更多的步行和自行车巡逻.
“We are always looking for opportunities to engage with the community and build trusting relationships. 这些努力将继续, 调查结果为这项工作提供了一个路线图,诺夫辛格说. “我们从不希望任何人在寻求帮助时犹豫. 我们在这里为宾州州立大学的每一位成员服务.”
Overall, survey respondents’ perceptions of police officers were largely positive. A substantial majority of respondents agreed with a series of positive statements about Penn State police officers, including 86% viewing officers as professional and 86% viewing officers as 有帮助的. 同时, 20% of all respondents described police officers as intimidating and 13% described officers as biased.
我们认识到这一点, 对于一些, 仅仅是一个穿制服的人在场就会让人感到害怕,诺夫辛格说. “We will work harder to demonstrate to the community that we are here to foster public safety and help those in need of public safety services. Whether it be offering educational programming to help prevent crimes, assisting a victim following a sexual assault or taking a drunk driver off the road to prevent potentially devastating consequences, 我们是来帮忙的.”
8%的受访者自称是非裔美国人, 拉美裔, Latinx, 夏威夷原住民或其他太平洋岛民, or two or more races; 7% of respondents who identified themselves as transgender, nonbinary or genderfluid; 7% of those who self-reported as lesbian, gay or bisexual; 6% of respondents who are internationals; and 1% of respondents who self-reported having a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act said they have felt targeted by police due to their group status.
“University 警察与公共安全 continues its commitment to increasing efforts to build trust among underrepresented groups and this commitment is evidenced by the recent hire of a director of diversity, 大学警察和公共安全的公平和包容,诺夫辛格说. “We are working closely with this director as well as the director of diversity and inclusion for Penn State Finance and Business, 负责教育公平的副教务长, 学生事务, the Penn State Center for Sexual and Gender 多样性 and others to develop action steps to continue building trusting relationships with the community and better serve the community.”
与目标人群相比, the respondents who provided their demographic information were more often employees than students, 更多是女性, 老, 而且更多的是白人, 这表明在这些特征上, non-respondents, 倾向于与被调查者不同. 考虑到问题的性质, 这些差异表明学生的观点不同, 教师和少数族裔在一些重要方面可能没有得到充分的代表. The imperfect nature of real-world data such as these is the reason that information gleaned from this survey will be considered in light of all of the data available to Police Services.
The findings are the result of a survey conducted by Penn State’s Office of Planning, 评估, and Institutional Research on behalf of University 警察与公共安全 to gain an understanding of student and employee attitudes and opinions related to police services and programs and campus safety. The results will be used to improve University Police services across the commonwealth for all community members.
2021年秋季, 大约27,000 members of the Penn State community received the survey across the 22 campuses where University Police provides services. A random sample of students and employees at Penn State’s 大学公园, 阿宾顿, 阿尔图纳, 博克斯, 贝伦德和哈里斯堡校区, as well as all students and employees at smaller Penn State campuses, 被邀请完成调查.
