Police Department Community Service Results & Action Plan

Community Survey Results and Action Plan

October 11, 2023

The Franklin Police Department conducted a Community Survey from July 25, 2023 – September 3, 2023.  This survey was anonymous and it was looking for community feedback in order to gauge how the department was doing in several different areas including community involvement, safety, procedural justice, performance and satisfaction of officer contact.  This survey was posted on all of our social media platforms and our web site with the intent of reaching as many citizens as possible.

There were 315 responses to this survey.  The results of the survey are below and can also be found on our web site at: https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/pages/2023_community_survey_results_data.pdf

The command staff at the police department have looked at this data and have found the following:

Community Involvement

• Although most people feel we do a good job at interacting with the community, we feel we can do better at making it easy for community members to provide input to the department.  We are working on ways for people to be able to provide information and suggestions using social media platforms or other communication platforms.

Safety

• The top three issues identified by the public as the greatest problems in the community are the same, we, as a department, have also identified as top priorities.  They include:
  • Traffic Issues (49.2%)
  • Mental Health Issues (44.4%)
  • Drug Abuse (31.7%)
• Here are the things that the police department have been and will continue to do regarding these issues:
  • Traffic: 
    • We have hired three of the four additional officers that the town has appropriated and once filled will bring us to a total of 58 sworn officers.  These officers have been assigned to our operations division and will be assigned to uniformed patrol.  This will increase the ability to conduct traffic enforcement during times between calls for service.
    • Our patrol division has increased traffic stops in FY23 by approximately 79.4% (3,348 stops) from the year before (FY22 – 1,868 stops).  With the addition of the four new officers, we have directed our operations division to continue this trend and expect an additional 25% increase of traffic stops and directed patrols this year.
  • Mental Health:
    • The department has started its own Co-response Mental Health Program to continue its good work that began with Advocates.
    • We have hired a team of mental health clinician who works directly for the Town of Franklin.  We have hired a FPD Co-response Program Manager and we are in the process of hiring two additional clinicians.  These clinicians will ride with officers to calls for service where mental health issues are a factor.  These clinicians are trained to recognize the problems, they understand the challenges, and can assist officers in real time, while on scene, by getting the individual the services they need quickly.  The new clinicians will start in November of 2023.
  • Drug Abuse:
    • We have one detective that is assigned to narcotics investigations.  All other detectives are crossed trained in narcotics investigations and can assist when needed.
    • Our detectives and clinicians conduct follow up investigations after drug overdoses in order to provide information and support services.
    • Our department participates in a county overdose database in which information is shared between member departments.  This allows us to follow up and provide services to those who are Franklin residents but may have overdosed in another jurisdiction.
    • We have a working partnership with the SAFE coalition and other organizations to provide support services to individuals and families suffering from drug addiction.

Procedural Justice

• We are happy to see that a majority of respondents trust the police, find us respectful and find us fair.  We will continue to strive to meet those expectations the community deserves.

Performance

• Although most found the overall performance of our agency satisfactory, we can improve on proactivity and addressing community concerns.
• We will encourage officers to get out of their cars while on patrol and engage more with the community.
• We will continue to encourage more community engagement through use of special vehicles such as bicycles, motorcycles and foot patrols of high pedestrian areas (i.e. Downtown, malls, etc.).

Conclusion

First of all, we would like to thank the community members who took the time to complete the survey.  Your feedback is extremely important to gauge what the community thinks of our performance.  We take all of this feedback extremely seriously and will do our best to improve.  Our goal is to provide the best possible service that we can, the level of service that our residents deserve.