Responses are in from the Community Expectations Survey conducted recently by the newly consolidated Princeton Police Department. Much as expected, traffic issues are uppermost on the minds of many residents.

Lieutenant Chris Morgan, formerly of the Township Police Department, said that now all the surveys have been gathered, the responses are being read carefully and common issues reported by Princeton residents are being looked at. “A report will be worked on over the next week or so and then submitted up the chain of command,” he said. The next step will be to assess response strategies and then implementation.

Over 450 businesses and residences were visited in person by police officers. “It was a tremendous opportunity and, I think, a successful effort,” according to Captain Nick Sutter, who said that the most common requests were for more police presence and more traffic enforcement. Traffic concerns were about volume and safety.

“We will now be better able to address the needs of the town. Not all of Princeton is the same, the needs of businesses in the center of town are different to those of residential streets in outlying sections,” he said.

The survey was conducted by police officers from the department’s Safe Neighborhood Unit in March and April. Officers went door to door, surveying homes and businesses in five sectors of the town, asking residents to complete a two-page questionnaire, available in Spanish and English. The survey was also available online.

The initiative, which was unveiled in February by Police Chief David Dudeck, now on leave pending his retirement in October, was an effort to find out what Princeton residents expect of the newly consolidated Princeton Police Department.

“The Community Survey has been an important opportunity to gather information about the community’s needs and expectations for the newly-combined police force,” commented Police Commissioner Heather Howard. “Through the on-line survey and the officers being out on the street and attending community meetings, it has alsoКbeen an excellent way to introduce the Safe Neighborhoods Unit, which will be strengthening relationships in the community and helping to increase safety and prevent crime.”

Survey questions focused on residents’ concerns in their neighborhoods and in the town as a whole, including specifics about the value of bicycle patrols, police station tours, school programs, community events; and about traffic safety, radar enforcement, school crossings, accident investigations, and overweight commercial vehicle enforcement. Space was provided for additional comments and recommendations.

“The Safe Neighborhood Unit brings police officers on bicycles to our streets for the sort of community policing that we had to cut back on in the past,” said Ms Howard. “Consolidation has created efficiencies in law enforcement that have allowed us to reintroduce community policing and thereby strengthen public safety services for the residents of Princeton,” she said.

Captain Sutter said that a formal report will be made public at community meetings held in the near future.