Reference no: EM133301325

Parkway is a midsized suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to the latest census data, the population is roughly 190,765. Many families with young and teenage children and immigrants from across the globe currently reside in the various subdivisions throughout the city. Demographically, males make up about 59.7% of the population and females are 40.3%. The median income is $42,433 a year with housing/condo values in the $205,000 to $300,000 range. Monthly rent averages $1,088. Blue-collar jobs (such as construction, waste management, and food services) are the most common positions held by men living in Parkway. Female residents are employed most often in health care, finance, insurance, and education positions. Approximately 18% of the residents live in poverty.

The racial makeup of Parkway is White non-Hispanic (57%), Black (20.5%), Hispanic (17.1%), other races (3.5%), two or more races (3.3%), Asian Indian (1.2%), and Chinese (0.8%). A little less than half (48.9%) of the population is foreign born. The unemployment rate is approximately 4.7%. In comparison to Florida state statistics, Parkway's Black race population percentage is significantly above the state average, its Hispanic race population percentage is also above the state average, the median age is below the state average, and the foreign-born population percentage is significantly above the state average.

Crime rates have been increasing over the last six years in Parkway despite efforts by the police department and city government. Last year, there were 4 murders, 38 rapes, 177 robberies, 280 assaults, 690 burglaries, 3,451 thefts, 570 motor vehicle thefts, and 19 arsons reported by the Parkway Police Department to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Report. Other crimes also occurred in the jurisdiction, although they were not reported to the FBI. The Parkway Police Department currently employs 272 full-time workers. One hundred and seventy of these are street-level officers. Budget constraints make it impossible right now to employ more officers or to increase patrol efforts.

Parkway Police Department is a CALEA-accredited agency. The department has held accreditation since 2005. It is due for reevaluation this year by a team of assessors from CALEA. The evaluators will arrive to examine the department's policies, procedures, management, operations, and support services by the end of the year.

With this in mind, the Parkway Police Department has been gathering information to share with the evaluators. Part of the evaluation process includes input from residents regarding the police department and its services. To meet this requirement, the department sent surveys to city residents on their views of public safety issues and services the public believes the department is not providing. Residents were asked to share any perceived department shortcomings in the survey.

Results from the survey indicated citywide concern over the increasing crime rates. Satisfaction with the Parkway Police Department declined since the last accreditation review in 2005. Survey questions asking about potential community problems indicated that crime was ranked as a problem, drug problems increased in rating from 13% to 20%, and the public's sense of safety from violent crime declined from 90% to 72%. The public's sense of safety from property crime declined from 80% to 64%. The quality of police services was ranked as average to below average by 91% of the residents who responded to the survey. In 2005, the survey indicated good or excellent quality in police services by approximately the same percentage of residents. When compared to similar communities that also rank their police departments, the Parkway Police Department is below average in ranking.

During traffic stops, the Parkway patrol officers provide comment cards to stopped motorists to encourage telephone calls if the motorists feel they were not treated properly. Of the more than 30,000 cards distributed over the last three years, only about 5,000 were returned. The issues identified in the comments on the cards were resolved quickly and satisfactorily according to those involved. Knowing this, the police chief and city government are somewhat surprised by the results of the citizen satisfaction survey and the lowered ranking of quality of policing services.

The CALEA evaluators will use the survey information and comment cards, as well as other documents provided by the city and department, to determine if reaccreditation status will be awarded at their conference in March.

Questions for Discussion

1. What are possible explanations for the lowered rankings of the Parkway Police Department by citizens?

2. Using service quality concepts, what can be done to improve the Parkway Police Department's citizen satisfaction scores?

3. What else should the Parkway Police Department do to improve the quality of service (within the budgetary confines)? Why didn't the Parkway Police Department chief and city council know about the declining image of the department prior to the survey? Why are these results a surprise?

4. If the Parkway Police Department placed the customer (specifically, the citizens) in the center of its organizational activities, how would customer focus, communication, leadership, motivation, and morale come into play?

5. What poka-yokes could the Parkway Police Department implement to reduce service errors?