ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The St. Augustine Police Department (SAPD) is gathering opinions from community members to understand how they could serve them better.
This is being done through a 34-question online survey.
People around the St. Johns County community feel this is a step towards making sure everyone is heard.
“Some things I think they can maybe be doing a little better is interacting with the community a little more,” said Ashley Lombardo.
Lombardo is talking about what she’d like to see the St. Augustine Police Department do more of.
The police department wants to hear from more people like Lombardo as well as from tourists.
This is the first time in 10 years the department is doing this. The goal is to see if their vision matches the expectations of the community.
Questions on the survey range from talking about how police treat others to how the agency solves problems.
The survey also asks if people feel safe going out alone at night.
This comes after a group of people were seen assaulting a city worker at night in March.
Besides that incident, there’ve been other times where people in the city have been injured at night.
In January, two women were hit by a woman who was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
The two women were taken to the hospital in critical condition. One was a member of Flagler College’s soccer team.
“Being a college student and being a girl I think there’s always a discomfort with walking around at night, but I wouldn’t say I feel too in danger walking around here,” said Rachel Cross.
News4JAX asked the police department how it plans to use the feedback from the community.
“That just all depends on the input and sitting down with community leaders and figuring out, coming together and figuring out what we can do best for both sides,” said SAPD spokesman Dee Brown.
Brown said the department is hoping for a lot of responses. Lombardo hopes for the same thing but also wants police to take the answers seriously.
The survey, which can be found here, is open until May 3.