Just got word of a new city “public safety survey,” and we are going through it even as we type this. First thing we noticed – not all West Seattle neighborhoods are listed in the first question about where you live (Morgan Junction and Gatewood are missing), so choose whatever’s closest. Otherwise, if you are concerned at all about crime and safety – and even if you feel your neighborhood is the safest place anywhere – there are a lot of good meaty questions to answer, about both your perception of crime/safety where you live, and your perception of Seattle police. The survey is here: seattle.gov/publicsafetysurvey – for an explanation, click ahead:

The city news release:

Today Mayor Mike McGinn announced a new tool to gather input on public safety from Seattle residents. An online survey, drafted by a team of graduate students at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, will help determine residents’ primary public safety concerns in their own neighborhoods and on public transportation. Previous public safety surveys conducted by the City focused on citywide perceptions.

With this survey, the City hopes to have a snapshot of perceptions of the police and public safety at a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. The survey also gives residents an opportunity to anonymously offer their opinions on the police and public safety in Seattle – a new option for this kind of survey.

The new survey asks residents their opinion of public safety conditions in Seattle’s urban villages, if there are any urban villages they avoid, and why. The survey also asks for opinions on the Seattle Police Department, focusing on community relations and behavior. These questions are similar to questions the City posed in its biannual survey over the past ten years.

In order to hear input from the entire city, Evans School students will have paper copies delivered to targeted locations, and will actively solicit responses from traditionally underrepresented communities. The City hopes to receive up to 15,000 responses to the survey questions.

Evans School students will do an analysis of initial responses by May and plan to present their analysis to the mayor’s Youth and Families Initiative subcabinet in mid-May.