Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Survey: Largo police are praiseworthy, but ...

Most of the 1,329 respondents give high marks. A few take the opportunity to speak, er, write their minds.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Published July 19, 2006

LARGO - When a law enforcement agency mails out citizen surveys, it often wants to gain accreditation and gauge public attitudes.

The vast majority of people never respond. Those who do, teach police officers a lesson: If a resident feels that one of you has mistreated them, they will never forget it.

Take this woman:

"A Largo police officer stopped me for a traffic violation in 1995," she wrote in this year's survey. "His attitude was not good. He laughed when he saw a company name on the registration - 'Who are you? The president?' and laughed.

"He then told me I had my seat belt on incorrectly. I explained I had just had breast surgery and had stitches (another laugh - not funny, it was cancer) so I had the shoulder strap under my breast instead of over it. He said he should 'write me up.'

"My point," the woman continued: "Since then, every interaction with a Largo officer has been positive, helpful and polite. It appears there has been some diversity and/or gender sensitivity training since 1995! It has definitely helped!!"

The Largo Police Department mailed out 10,000 surveys in April. About 1,329 people filled them out, answering questions that ranged from police effectiveness, where 93 percent thought it was "excellent" or "good," to officer courtesy and competency.

The last survey was done in 2004, when a little more than half of respondents said they felt "very safe" in their neighborhoods.

This year, about 59 percent felt that way. Only 2 percent believed they were "not safe."

Then there was this guy:

"Wish to thank Largo P.D. for its concern as to my family's safety and welfare," the person wrote in the comments section. "I do not contemplate having to use their services in the near or distant future. I have two reliable sources to fall back on in case of being victimized by the criminal element: Mr. Smith & Wesson and Mr. Samuel Colt, both of the .357 Magnum class. Thank you, Chief."

Chief Lester Aradi said that he's read all the comments, many of which are positive: God bless, cops deserve a raise, "When I thought I had been robbed, the police were very kind to me. I was so sorry that I wasted their time." That kind of thing.

Many more were critical: Folks who complained about living in a place for five years and never seeing a police cruiser. Parents who ranted about aggressive drivers. Do something about the drug/prostitution problem in their mobile home park, why don't you.

"Here's something that wasn't even addressed in your survey - noise in neighborhoods from autos with extremely loud speakers that actually make windows and chandeliers rattle!" one resident wrote. "You can hear the little darlings coming when they're more than a mile away."

More than a few residents wanted these cars that go boom to just shut up already.

Chief Aradi sighed.

"That's an issue that is not just isolated to the city of Largo," he said. "That's an emerging annoyance among all cities."

Using the agency's resources to specifically target the subwoofer-thumpers would be impractical, Aradi said. But he hopes people will know that, if a parked car is rattling with bass, disturbing neighbors, and a police officer just happens to be in the area, not doing much else, then something will be done.

Other comments?

"Dogs. Animals not confined," someone wrote. "I was just bitten while taking out my trash in my yard by a loose, uncontrolled huge dog with no shots. Small fine, and he's still at home!"

Aradi said that person left a phone number, as a couple dozen others did, and the department is trying to resolve the problem.

But not this one.

"Chief: Your officers look so hot in the summer in black shirts. Give them a break and a white shirt."

"Yeah, yeah, I read that," Aradi said. "They wear dark blue shirts, yes. I don't think that person realizes that, late at night, chasing someone down the street, a white shirt sticks out like a sore thumb."

Then there were those people who called the cops arrogant tailgaters.

"There's always going to be a small group that is highly upset with law enforcement because sometimes it's an adversarial relationship," Aradi said. "And people that are more upset are more likely to write comments, like letters to the editor. But you try to look for patterns, or emerging patterns. And we publish every single comment, and officers have the opportunity to read them as well."

But do they really?

"Shoulder to shoulder, reading through the book, yes."

The next survey is expected in two or three years.

[Last modified July 18, 2006, 20:55:10]