Results of the annual Seattle Public Safety Survey were presented at the North Precinct Advisory Council meeting on April 3, and specific findings about Fremont’s perceptions of police legitimacy and fear of crime were highlighted.
Dr. Jacqueline Helfgott, Director, Seattle University Crime & Justice Research Center, virtually presented the results of the 2024 Seattle Public Safety Survey and discussed how the results provide context to the Seattle Police Micro-Community Policing Plans.
Launched in 2015, the MCPP asserts that public safety can be improved and crime reduced through addressing the specific priority needs of Seattle neighborhoods. The primary method for understanding these needs is the Seattle Public Safety Survey, which collects qualitative and quantitative data that gives insights into community perceptions of public safety.
Led by Helfgott, the Seattle Public Safety Survey is independently conducted by a research team from the Seattle University Crime & Justice Research Center. The areas measured were concerns about crime and public safety and perceptions of police legitimacy, informal social control, social cohesion, fear of crime and social disorganization.
Specific to Fremont, Helfgott called out the area of police legitimacy.
“You have an example of the lowest and highest rating on police legitimacy. Fremont had rated police 33 on the 100-point scale and you had Sandpoint rated police 61 on the 100-point scale,” she said. “That’s a big difference in neighborhoods…we might want to work on police legitimacy ratings in Fremont.”
According to the Seattle University researchers, “police legitimacy is an important concept relevant to public safety as it has been consistently found that law enforcement relies on police legitimacy for individuals to cooperate/comply with and support their departments.”
Helfgott didn’t offer answers or assumptions as to why rating police legitimacy was so low in Fremont, but did note later in the presentation that age doesn’t appear to be a strong predictor.
A second outlier score was Fremont’s residents’ fear of crime rating, the lowest in North Seattle.
These findings raise questions about the relationship between fear of crime and police legitimacy in Fremont. Do residents rely more on their neighbors and community efforts to handle safety issues instead of turning to police? Might residents feel that police aren’t focusing enough on issues they care about, which affects their trust in law enforcement despite generally feeling safe?
To address a lower police legitimacy rating, Helfgott suggested community-based solutions, such as events held with the police.
“It’s something that any neighborhood can take and try to do better than what they’re already doing, and it’s not just for the police to do better,” she said.
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