The Hopkinsville Police Department released the results of their community perception survey Wednesday, which measures how the public’s perception on safety, police relationships and more.
400 people took the survey, according to a news release, which states that during the day, 93 percent of survey takers felt safe while shopping, which is up 7.5 percent from last year. 88 percent felt safe at community events, up 3.9 percent, 82 percent felt safe walking in neighborhoods, up 1.9 percent, and 82 percent felt they were safe in downtown Hopkinsville, which is up 1.3 percent from the previous survey.
77 percent believe Hopkinsville police are impartial and treat individuals fairly when enforcing the law and 73 percent would recommend Hopkinsville as a safe place to live and raise a family. Notably, 11 percent of survey takers reported being victims of property crime in last year—down 7.7 percent—and 2.2 percent reported being victims of violent crime in last year, which is reportedly down 8.8 percent.
Police Chief Clayton Sumner credited his staff with earning continued community support and says, “Despite these promising results, we continue to double down on violent and other crime within our community. Specifically, we heard in the survey that there remains more work to be done to curb gun crimes, panhandling, traffic issues, and drug and juvenile-related crimes.”