Blockwise

Zencity’s Blockwise survey is a recurring survey intended to measure a community’s sense of safety and trust in law enforcement agencies and deliver representative, ongoing results through your own live dashboard.

This article will cover the process from start to finish, the technology that powers our survey, and how you can use the data breakdowns you’ll find waiting in your survey dashboard to inform your performance review and benchmarking.

Process overview | Survey technology | Survey dashboard

Blockwise process overview

When you run a Blockwise survey with Zencity, here’s the process you can expect:

1. Approve the questionnaire, define a custom question you’d like to add, and select a survey cycle cadence

2. Zencity digitally distributes the questionnaire to your residents, using census data to reach a representative sample of your community

3. Ratings are regularly aggregated into trust and safety scores, found in the map tab of your Blockwise dashboard. Responses to open questions are automatically displayed in the comment feed tab.

4. Results are also presented within a report at the conclusion of each survey cycle, either on a monthly or quarterly basis

5. The cycle repeats to continuously provide you with fresh feedback

Blockwise survey technology

Built upon our merger with Elucd, our cutting-edge survey technology enables the following:

1. Continuous data collection: We distribute your survey throughout the year to reach a large sample size and place the most current data in your hands.

2. Cross-platform digital distribution: We deliver the survey via ads, reaching residents on the devices and platforms where they already are. Learn more about our distribution methodology here.

3. Free-text analysis and classification: Our algorithms, built specifically to process large swaths of law enforcement-related content, allows us to surface common threads in conversation for you to quickly get a sense of top residents’ comments and concerns.

4. Organic discourse cross-referencing: If you’re a user of Zencity organic discourse, you can add context to your results with insights from the organic discourse in your community and identify new focus areas as conversations develop.

Survey dashboard

Your results are presented within an interactive dashboard, divided into two tabs: map and comment feed. Find explanations below about what you can expect to find in each one and how to make full use of the available data:

Map tab

Within the map tab, hover over each precinct or sector to view the score for that defined area alongside the score for your community overall. For additional views and comparisons, navigate the map using the map legend and the sidebar filters.

Legend: Located in the upper lefthand corner, this widget lets you interpret and refine what’s represented on your map. You can:

• Refer to the color-coded scale to understand where your precincts or sectors fall on the score scale

• Select the reference point you want by toggling between My City (data shown is ranked based on the performance of your city alone) or All Cities (data shown is ranked based on the performance of all cities)

• Filter your map by score type (trust score or safety score), date, and agency level. Click on each blue button to define what you’d like the map to display.

Sidebar filters: Located on the right hand side, these filters let you narrow your data to explore patterns you noticed in your map or to conduct comparisons between areas and populations. These filters are organized around three areas of focus: scores, demographics and feedback.

• In the scores section, you’ll find a more detailed breakdown of your scores over time and by geographic area. Select or unselect the precincts or sectors you want from the labels below the graph to build a visual comparison of safety and trust measures across your community. For example, selecting “North” precinct will add a color-corresponding line to the graph representing that precinct’s score over time, so you can view in the context of your community’s overall score (or any other precinct you add in, as well). Below the graph, you’ll find a table detailing the difference between your current score and any other time you select. You can export and share this data with your colleagues using the link at the top of the sidebar.

   

• In the demographics section, you’ll find a graph charting scores by the following major demographic characteristics: race, age, sex, education, and income. To choose which demographic classification you want to focus on, scroll down on the sidebar to the blue button where it says ‘Select Demographic’ and click on it to make your selection. Within each demographic, you can use the labels below the graph to add in or remove groups to build the comparison graph you want. If there isn’t enough data from a specific group to generate a display, a message will appear below the labels.

• In the feedback section, you’ll see the volume of top public safety-related topics that appear among resident responses to open-ended questions. You can use the graph to follow the rise and fall of these topics over time across your entire community. Use the topic labels below the graph to add or remove lines for comparison on the graph, and scroll down to build a side-by-side comparison of topic prevalence between two dates of your choice.

Comment feed

Your feed displays a running list, updated each day at midnight, of resident responses to open-ended questions about their top safety or trust concerns in your community. Translated into English (if originally written in another language) and tagged by topic, according to Zencity’s NLP classification technology, it makes it easy to scan and filter the comments.

Use the toggle on the top left side to organize the comments by geographic area (division) or by topic, and use the division and topic filters to narrow or broaden which comments you want to review.

Questions?

For questions that arise as you use your dashboard, or about the survey materials or methodology, please contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager or send us a message below.