This study was designed to analyze the impact of four
televised public service announcements (PSAs) aired for three months
in Lima, Ohio. The researchers sought to answer three specific
research questions: (1) Were the PSAs effective in transferring
knowledge to citizens about the police? (2) Did the PSAs have an
impact on resident satisfaction with the police? and (3) Did the PSAs
have an impact on the behavior of citizens interacting with the
police? To assess public attitudes about the Lima police and to
determine whether the substance of the PSAs was being communicated to
the residents of Lima, three waves of telephone interviews were
conducted (Part 1). The first telephone interviews were conducted in
April 1996 with approximately 500 randomly selected Lima
residents. These were baseline interviews that took place before the
PSAs aired. The survey instrument used in the first interview assessed
resident satisfaction with the police and the services they
provided. After completion of the Wave 1 interviews, the PSAs were
aired on television for three months (June 5-August 28, 1996). After
August 28, the PSAs were removed from general circulation. A second
wave of telephone interviews was conducted in September 1996 with a
different group of randomly selected Lima residents. The same survey
instrument used during the first interviews was administered during
the second wave, with additional questions added relating to whether
the respondent saw any of the PSAs. A third group of randomly selected
Lima residents was contacted via the telephone in January 1997 for the
final wave of interviews. The final interviews utilized the identical
survey instrument used during Wave 2. The focus of this follow-up
survey was on citizen retention, over time, of the information
communicated in the PSAs. Official data collected from computerized
records maintained by the Lima Police Department were also collected
to monitor changes in citizen behavior (Part 2). The records data span
127 weeks, from January 1, 1995, to June 7, 1997, which includes 74
weeks of pre-PSA data and 53 weeks of data for the period during the
initial airing of the first PSA and thereafter. Variables in Part 1
include whether respondents were interested in learning about what to
do if stopped by the police, what actions they had displayed when
stopped by the police, if they would defend another person being
treated unfairly by the police, how responsible they felt (as a
citizen) in preventing crimes, the likelihood of calling the police if
they were aware of a crime, perception of crime and fear of crime, and
whether there had been an increase or decrease in the level of crime
in their neighborhoods. Respondents were also asked about the amount
of television they watched, whether they saw any of the public service
announcements and if so to rate them, whether the PSAs provided
information not already known, whether any of the PSA topics had come
up in conversations with family or friends, and whether the
respondent would like to see more PSAs in the future. Finally,
respondents were asked whether the police were doing as much as they
could to make the neighborhood safe, how responsive the police were to
nonemergency matters, and to rate their overall satisfaction with the
Lima Police Department and its various services. Demographic variables
for Part 1 include the race, gender, age, marital status, level of
education, employment status, and income level of each respondent.
Variables in Part 2 cover police use-of-force or resisting arrest
incidents that took place during the study period, whether the PSA
aired during the week in which a use-of-force or resisting arrest
incident took place, the number of supplemental police use-of-force
reports that were made, and the number of resisting arrest charges
made.