Credit: FILE PHOTO

A survey of 383 Rochester residents conducted late last year found that there is a deep divide between the perception and reality of crime in the city (the full survey can be found below). And the gap widens or narrows depending on the race, age, and income of the respondents, as well as the area of the city in which they live and whether they rent or own their homes. 

Cornell University conducted the survey last November and December, and the results were released at a press conference today by Rochester interim Police Chief Michael Ciminelli. Ciminelli was joined by Mayor Lovely Warren and City Council President Loretta Scott. 

Violent crime in the City of Rochester is down significantly overall, Ciminelli said, but the perception of many city residents doesn’t match that reality. Ciminelli and Warren were reluctant to say what is driving that perception. But it’s clear, they said, that having positive interactions with the police department improves people’s perception of public safety in the city overall. 

Some highlights of the survey report: 
• 93 percent of respondents said they feel safe in their neighborhood during the day;
• About 66 percent said they feel safe in their neighborhood after dark; 
• 28.3 percent said they have “a lot of fear” about becoming a victim in areas of the city outside their neighborhood;
• 21 percent feel less safe in their neighborhood compared to a year ago; 
• 39.5 percent of people living in the northeast quadrant reported feeling that the overall level of crime in their neighborhood has increased; 
• 36.5 percent of nonwhites were most likely to rate police response times as poor or very poor;

Warren and Ciminelli said that the survey results support the decision to move to a quadrant policing model. The city is moving from two stations to four or five in a year or two. Ciminelli said he hopes to have recommendations to Warren in May, and that the new model would be phased in. 

But, he said, the RPD would step up its community engagement efforts in the meantime to try to turn some of the perceptions contained in the report around. 

Building trust between the police and the community has been a longstanding but elusive goal for the city. More trust would likely mean more cooperation from the community to solve crimes, and would probably improve the overall impression people have of the City of Rochester. 

But the disconnect between the police and some residents is more than a perception problem— something the report does not address. There are real issues underpinning the fracture: the inability to effectively target well-known open-air drug markets; the fact that the RPD is a relatively young force — younger officers tend to be more aggressive and less flexible; and the tendency to put rookies in specialized assignments, which, the police union says, deprives them of the seasoning they’d get if they started out working a general beat. 

Police Community Survey 2013-2014

This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2014.

I'm City's news editor, which means I oversee all aspects of our news-gathering operation. I also sneak in to an occasional City Council meeting and cover Rochester's intriguing and eclectic neighbors....

5 replies on “Perception of city crime, police performance varies depending on who you are and where you live”

  2. Stephen, my understanding is they feel it would improve the relationship between the police and the community, because they’d have more cops out on the streets, walking a beat and interacting with people in a positive way. It’s something the police union has wanted, too.

    The former mayor, Tom Richards, thought more stations would probably be too costly and that, because of advances in technology, there really isn’t a need for bricks-and-mortar stations. Each squad car is essentially a mobile police station now.

    The “4 or 5” estimate is because they haven’t decided if the downtown substation in the Sibley building will continue to be a separate operation or consolidated with another station.

    Chris Fien
    City news editor

  3. I would like to see more police on bkes. You are more mobile than walking, but can still respond at a decent speed if necessary as well as carry slightly more gear. From riding my bike around all summer, you definitely notice more on a bike than in your car with the windows up.

  4. I also like police bike patrols. I’ve biked all over Rochester for many years and I know how much more you can see, hear, and smell on a bike. Walking a beat is so slow and old-fashioned compared to a bike patrol. There are many places a patrol car can’t go that a bike can. Bikes are better at getting through crowds, so it makes sense to use them for many security assignments. Electric bikes are available. I’m not sure how well they perform, but the technolgy is advancing. Bikes allow for easier engagement between cops and the public. Bikes offer stealth because they are small and quiet. An officer can quickly maneuver around corners and so effectively patrol areas normally inaccessible by car.

    In additon, riding a bike is mood enhancing and this would help to improve community relations.

    I want more police bike patrols in Rochester.

  5. Look at the page on interaction with the RPD.

    Note that the “No Interaction” response is 67% at the highest (67.1% had had no interaction with PACTAC; thus 32.9% had the highest interaction rate) and 85% at the lowest (“Attended a Voice of the Citizens Meeting – 84.6% had no interaction; thus 15.4% had the lowest interaction rate).

    Note the positive/negative experiences among those who actually participated in those activities.

    Those who attended NCS’s, participated in or knew about PACTAC, and/or attended neighborhood meetings had fairly high levels of positive experience with the police.

    My experience in the four years I worked on public safety issues in Rochester before moving to Wisconsin to be near my grandchildren was that I had fairly positive experiences with the police because of my active involvement. Despite the fact that I lived on two of the worst drug corners in the city (first Union & Weld, then Chili & Hobart), I felt relatively safe. I would even walk down to the liquor store on Chili Avenue at night. Not late, but after dark.

    But most people don’t want to be actively involved. They have other, more important (to them) things to be doing.

    But the thing about being actively involved is that you then become known to the RPD in a positive way. You CREATE the necessary sense of community in order to feel safe.

    So if you want to feel safer in the City, get involved!

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