CP-SAT Short Form

OMB Approval Number: 1103-0105

Expiration Date: MM/DD/YYYY

Community Policing Self-Assessment Tool: Short Form

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.

The Community Policing Self-Assessment Tool (CP-SAT) is designed to assess three key areas in community policing: community partnerships, problem solving, and organizational transformation. The three key areas of community policing included in this tool are described below.

• COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

Collaborative partnerships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police.

• PROBLEM SOLVING 

The process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop effective responses.

• ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION 

The alignment of organizational management, structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships and proactive problem solving.

The majority of questions follow the same format. Please indicate your response by selecting the appropriate answer. You may skip any survey items you do not feel comfortable answering, but we encourage you to respond to as many items as possible.

Your responses to this survey will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. There are no individual identifiers in the data that the law enforcement agency will receive, and the agency will not be able to link an individual’s data to their email address. This is not a test and there are no right or wrong answers. Please answer each question honestly.

1. Please choose the response that best indicates your level or relationship with the agency:

Line officer

First-line supervisor/Middle management

Command staff

Civilian staff

Community partner

Community Partnerships

Community partnerships refer to collaborative partnerships formed between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations the agency serves in order to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police.

The following questions ask about your agency’s community partnership activities during the last year.

	No involvement	A little involvement	Moderate involvement	Significant involvement	Extensive involvement
2. (Civilian Only) Please indicate your level of involvement with community partnerships in your agency. ("Community partnerships" refer to collaborative partnerships formed between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations the agency serves in order to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police.)	○	○	○	○	○

[If 1 = No involvement or 2 = A little involvement, skip to Problem Solving section]

Engagement with a Wide Range of Partners

To what extent do the following types of organizations actively participate as community partners with your law enforcement agency? (“Actively participate” refers to information sharing, attending meetings, problem identification, and/or problem solving.)	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
3. Law enforcement agencies (e.g., Federal, State, and/or other jurisdictions) who serve the community.	○	○	○	○	○
4. Other components of the criminal justice system (e.g., probation, parole, courts, prosecutors, and juvenile justice authorities).	○	○	○	○	○
5. Other government agencies (e.g., Parks, Public Works, Traffic Engineering, Code Enforcement, Schools).	○	○	○	○	○
6. Non-profit/community-based organizations that serve community members.	○	○	○	○	○
7. Businesses operating in the community.	○	○	○	○	○
8. The local media.	○	○	○	○	○
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
9. To what extent do individuals in the community actively participate as community partners with your law enforcement agency?	○	○	○	○	○

Government Partnerships (Non-law enforcement)

The following questions refer to non-law enforcement government agencies in your community, such as parks, public works, traffic engineering, code enforcement, and/or the school system.

	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
10. To what extent does your agency provide sufficient resources (e.g., financial, staff time, personnel, equipment, political, and/or managerial support) to support the work of its government partnerships?	○	○	○	○	○
11. To what extent are you involved in implementing problem-solving projects with government partners?	○	○	○	○	○
12. To what extent do you collaborate in developing shared goals for problem-solving efforts with government partners?	○	○	○	○	○
13. To what extent do government partners share accountability for the partnership activities?	○	○	○	○	○
	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Often	Very Often
14. How often do you communicate with government partners?	○	○	○	○	○

Community Organization and Local Business Partnerships

The following questions refer to non-government partners, such as block watch groups, faith-based organizations, neighborhood associations, non-profit service providers, media, local businesses, and youth clubs.

	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
15. To what extent does your agency provide sufficient resources (e.g., financial, staff time, personnel, equipment, political, and/or managerial support) to support the work of its non-government partnerships?	○	○	○	○	○
16. To what extent do non-government partners trust your law enforcement agency (e.g., share information, believe that the department takes accountability seriously, believe the agency follows through on commitments, believe the agency will be honest about problems)?	○	○	○	○	○
17. To what extent are you involved in implementing problem-solving projects with non-government partners?	○	○	○	○	○
18. To what extent do you collaborate in developing shared goals for problem-solving efforts with non-government partners?	○	○	○	○	○
19. To what extent do non-government partners share accountability for the partnership activities?	○	○	○	○	○
	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Often	Very Often
20. How often do you communicate with non- government partners?	○	○	○	○	○

General Engagement with the Community

To what extent do you…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
21. Involve community members in solutions to community problems?	○	○	○	○	○
22. Make contact with a wide range of community members to assess community priorities?	○	○	○	○	○
23. Attend community events and meetings?	○	○	○	○	○

Problem Solving

The following questions ask about problem solving work by you and your agency during the last year. Problem solving is a proactive, analytic process for systematically: Identifying neighborhood problems through coordinated community/police assessments (Scanning) Collecting and analyzing information about the problems (Analysis) Developing and implementing responses with the potential for eliminating or reducing the problems (Response) Evaluating the responses to determine the effectiveness (Assessment). Problem solving goes beyond traditional crime responses to proactively address a multitude of problems that adversely affect quality of life.
	No involvement		A little involvement		Moderate involvement		Significant involvement		Extensive involvement
24. (Civilian Only) Please indicate your level of involvement with your agency's problem-solving efforts. ("Problem solving" is the process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop effective responses.)	○		○		○		○		○
[If 1 = No involvement or 2 = A little involvement, skip to Organizational Transformation section]
General Problem Solving
		Not at all		A little		Somewhat		A lot		To a great extent
25. How aware are you of the Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment (SARA) model?		○		○		○		○		○
26. To what extent are officers in your agency given the shift time to engage in the problem-solving process?		○		○		○		○		○
27. To what extent does your agency keep historical records (e.g., lessons learned, after action report) of problem solving for future reference?		○		○		○		○		○
28. To what extent does your agency coordinate problem-solving efforts across the agency (e.g., separate police divisions and shifts)?		○		○		○		○		○
	Never		Rarely		Sometimes		Often		Very Often
29. How often do you conduct problem solving in your daily work?	○		○		○		○		○

Problem Solving Processes: Scanning

In identifying and prioritizing the problems in your community, to what extent do you consider…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
30. Locations?	○	○	○	○	○
31. Victims?	○	○	○	○	○
32. Offenders?	○	○	○	○	○
33. In identifying and prioritizing the problems in your community, how much do you use non-law enforcement information (e.g., community surveys, community partners, input from caregivers, parole officers, landlords or business managers)?	○	○	○	○	○

Problem Solving Processes: Analysis

When analyzing a problem, to what extent do you…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
34. Examine a comprehensive set of factors, such as the location, day of week, time of day, season and environmental factors (e.g., street lighting and landscape)?	○	○	○	○	○
35. Analyze the strengths and limitations of past or current responses to the problem?	○	○	○	○	○
36. Examine a range of non-police data (e.g., government records, community surveys, school information)?	○	○	○	○	○
37. Research and conduct analyses based on best practices?	○	○	○	○	○
38. Gather information about the victims affected by a problem?	○	○	○	○	○
39. Gather information about offenders contributing to a problem?	○	○	○	○	○
40. Gather information about locations contributing to a problem?	○	○	○	○	○

Problem Solving Processes: Response
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
41. How much do you work with stakeholders in developing responses to problems?	○	○	○	○	○
42. In responding to problems, to what extent do you focus on long-term solutions that address underlying conditions of problems?	○	○	○	○	○
43. To what extent do you determine a response based on results of problem analysis?	○	○	○	○	○
44. To what extent do your problem-solving responses supplement enforcement activities with prevention-oriented strategies, such as situational crime prevention, nuisance abatement, zoning, and involving social services?	○	○	○	○	○

Problem Solving Processes: Assessment

When assessing your problem-solving efforts…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
45. How much do you (or someone else) examine whether the response was implemented as planned?	○	○	○	○	○
46. To what extent do you (or someone else) determine if the response was effective, compared to baseline data?	○	○	○	○	○
47.To what extent do you (or someone else) analyze the nature of the problem further if a response does not work?	○	○	○	○	○
48. To what extent do you (or someone else) analyze the response further if a response does not work?	○	○	○	○	○

Organizational Transformation

Organizational transformation refers to the alignment of policies and practices to support community partnerships and proactive problem-solving.

The four aspects of organizational transformation measured on this survey are organized as follows:
• Agency Management
• Personnel Management
• Leadership
• Transparency

The following questions ask about your agency’s management, personnel practices, leadership, and transparency during the last year. Agency Management
	Not at all	A little				Somewhat		A lot			To a great extent
49. To what extent are you readily able to access relevant information (e.g., police, community, and research data) to support problem solving?	○	○				○		○			○
50. To what extent are the problem-solving data available to you accurate?	○	○				○		○			○
51. To what extent does your agency provide the data (e.g., through reports or intranet access) that you need to engage in effective problem solving?	○	○				○		○			○
52. To what extent has your agency acquired the necessary information technology hardware and software (e.g., crime analysis, mapping) to support problem solving?	○	○				○		○			○
53. (Command only) To what degree has your agency included community policing values (e.g., empowerment, trust, accountability, problem solving, and community partnership) in its mission statement?	○	○				○		○			○
54. (Command only) To what degree does your agency's strategic plan (or similar document) include goals or objective statements that support community policing?	○		○		○		○			○
55. (Command only) To what extent are community partners represented in planning and policy activities (e.g., budgeting, citizen advisory panels)?	○		○		○		○			○
56. (Command only) To what extent does your agency prioritize community policing efforts in making budgetary decisions?	○		○		○		○			○
57. (Command only) Does your agency conduct a review of the performance of the organization regularly (e.g., at least once every year)?				Yes					No

[If No, skip to 61]

	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
58. (Command only) To what extent did your agency’s most recent effort to evaluate organizational performance reflect overall impacts of your community policing efforts?	○	○	○	○	○
59. (Command only) In assessing your organization’s community policing efforts, to what extent does your agency incorporate community assessment tools (e.g., surveys, citizen feedback letters, online input)?	○	○	○	○	○
60. (Command only) To what extent did your agency share the results from your most recent effort to evaluate community policing?	○	○	○	○	○
Personnel Management
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
61. To what extent does your agency require demonstrated competency in community policing (e.g., ability to form productive partnerships, completion of a successful problem-solving project) for promotion?	○	○	○	○	○
62. How well are expectations for your role in community policing defined by your law enforcement agency?	○	○	○	○	○
To what extent are officers in your agency trained in…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
63. Problem solving?	○	○	○	○	○
64. Building community partnerships?	○	○	○	○	○
65. To what extent is community policing an agency-wide effort involving all staff?	○	○	○	○	○
66. To what extent are officers in your agency given adequate uncommitted time to proactively work with the community?	○	○	○	○	○
67. To what extent are geographic, beat, or sector assignments long enough to allow officers in your agency to form strong relationships with the community?	○	○	○	○	○
68. To what extent does your agency give patrol officers decision-making authority to develop responses to community problems?	○	○	○	○	○
To what extent do performance evaluations hold you accountable for…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
69. (Line Officers Only) Developing partnerships with external groups?	○	○	○	○	○
70. (Line Officers Only) Using problem solving?	○	○	○	○	○
To what extent does recruit field training in your agency include…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
71. (Command only) Problem solving?	○	○	○	○	○
72. (Command only) Developing partnerships?	○	○	○	○	○
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
73. (Command only) How much does your agency involve the community in recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (e.g., the community might help identify competencies and participate in oral boards)?	○	○	○	○	○
74. (Command only) To what extent does your agency recruit officers who have strong general problem-solving skills?	○	○	○	○	○
75. (Command only) To what extent does your agency recruit officers who have an interest in working collaboratively with the community?	○	○	○	○	○

To what extent do performance evaluations hold managers and supervisors in your agency accountable for…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
76. (First-Line Supervisor/Middle Management & Command only) Encouraging community policing among officers they supervise?	○	○	○	○	○
77. (First-Line Supervisor/Middle Management & Command only) Developing partnerships with external groups?	○	○	○	○	○
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
78. (First-Line Supervisor/Middle Management & Command only) Using innovative problem solving?	○	○	○	○	○

Leadership

To what extent does your Chief/Sheriff stress the importance of…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
79. Community policing to personnel within your agency?	○	○	○	○	○
80. Community policing externally?	○	○	○	○	○
To what extent does the top command staff at your agency…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
81. Communicate a vision for community policing to personnel within your agency?	○	○	○	○	○
82. Advocate partnerships with the community?	○	○	○	○	○
83. Value officers’ work in partnership activities?	○	○	○	○	○
84. Value officers’ work in problem solving?	○	○	○	○	○
To what extent do first-line supervisors in your agency…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
85. Establish clear direction for community policing activities?	○	○	○	○	○
86. Empower officers to do community policing?	○	○	○	○	○

Transparency

To what extent does your agency provide community members with information on…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
87. Agency activities?	○	○	○	○	○
88. Crime problems?	○	○	○	○	○
89. Crime-prevention tips?	○	○	○	○	○
90. Crime maps?	○	○	○	○	○
	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
91. To what extent does your agency communicate openly with community members?	○	○	○	○	○

Community Partner Perspective

Partnership with the Law Enforcement Agency

The following questions refer to your organization’s partnership with the local law enforcement agency during the last year.

	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
92. (Partner only) To what degree is the law enforcement agency involved in problem-solving projects with your organization?	○	○	○	○	○
93. (Partner only) How much does the law enforcement agency collaborate in developing shared goals for problem-solving efforts with your organization?	○	○	○	○	○
94. (Partner only) To what degree does the law enforcement agency provide sufficient resources (e.g., financial, staff time, personnel, equipment, political, and/or managerial support) to support the work of your partnership?	○	○	○	○	○
95. (Partner only) To what extent does your organization share accountability with the law enforcement agency for the partnership activities?	○	○	○	○	○
96. (Partner only) To what extent does your organization trust the law enforcement agency (e.g., share information, believe that the department takes accountability seriously, believe the agency follows through on commitments, and believe the agency will be honest about problems)?	○	○	○	○	○
	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Often	Very Often
97. (Partner only) How often does the law enforcement agency communicate with your organization?	○	○	○	○	○

98. (Partner only) Please indicate the statement that best describes the relationship between your organization and the law enforcement agency:

□ Interaction with the law enforcement agency involves one-way communication from the law enforcement agency to your organization (for example, educating and/or informing the organization about current law enforcement initiatives).

□ Interaction with the law enforcement agency involves one-way communication from your organization to the law enforcement agency (for example, informing the law enforcement agency of community-related concerns).

□ Interaction between your organization and the law enforcement agency involves two-way information sharing (for example, your organization collects information on community priorities and concerns for the law enforcement agency and the law enforcement agency provides information about responses).

□ Interaction with the law enforcement agency involves collaboration, shared power, and shared decision-making between the law enforcement agency and your organization to determine community needs, priorities, and appropriate responses.

General Engagement and Communication with the Community

The following questions refer to the law enforcement agency’s engagement and communication with the general public during the last year.

	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
99. (Partner only) To what extent does the law enforcement agency involve community members in solutions to community problems?	○	○	○	○	○
100. (Partner only) To what extent do officers in the law enforcement agency introduce themselves to community members (e.g., residents, organizations, and groups)?	○	○	○	○	○
101. (Partner only) To what extent does the law enforcement agency develop relationships with community members (e.g., residents, organizations, and groups)?	○	○	○	○	○
102. (Partner only) To what extent is the law enforcement agency aware of the priorities of community members?	○	○	○	○	○
103. (Partner only) To what degree are beat assignments in the law enforcement agency long enough to allow police to form strong relationships with the community?	○	○	○	○	○

To what extent does the law enforcement partner…	Not at all	A little	Somewhat	A lot	To a great extent
104. (Partner only) Regularly communicate with residents (e.g., through websites, newsletters, public meetings)?	○	○	○	○	○
105. (Partner only) Communicate with the community openly?	○	○	○	○	○
106. (Partner only) Share information on crime problems with external parties?	○	○	○	○	○
107. (Partner only) Provide residents with a mechanism to provide feedback to the agency?	○	○	○	○	○
108. (Partner only) Make it easy for community residents and others to contact the beat officer assigned to their area?	○	○	○	○	○
109. (Partner only) Communicate a vision for community policing externally?	○	○	○	○	○

Thank you for completing the Community Policing Self-Assessment Tool (CP-SAT).

Your feedback will be used to help create a better understanding of your agency’s community policing achievements and activities.

 

This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number # 2010-CK-WXK-003 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.

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