ISA conducts 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey for StudyLA at Loyola Marymount University

ISA conducts 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey for StudyLA

This survey was conducted to measure public opinion toward the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) policing in Los Angeles, California

The Study

In the fall of 2020, Interviewing Service of America (ISA) conducted a survey on behalf of The Center for the Study of Los Angeles (StudyLA) at Loyola Marymount University to better understand the public’s opinion toward policing in Los Angeles. The questions asked in this survey covered topics such as trust in the police, community engagement efforts by the local police, race relations, and personal experiences with the police. The reason for the study was to gauge how residents feel about the job the LAPD is doing in relation to their mission: “to safeguard the lives and property of the people the LAPD serves, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve quality of life.”

Methodology

The survey was conducted from August 21 to October 25, 2020 and administered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean. It utilized a mixed methodology to ensure representation of the diverse LA population, consisting of a 20-minute telephone interview, online surveys, and face-to-face interviews with 1,753 adults who reside in the city of Los Angeles. A minimum of 400 residents from each of the four LAPD bureaus were surveyed.

Results

When residents were asked how things were going in the city of Los Angeles, only 48.8% said it was going in the right direction. The level of optimism has been steadily dropping since 2017. Residents have more trust in their neighbors (64.6%) than the LAPD (51.2%) to do what is right. A huge number of Angelenos support community policing (88.2%), which focuses on having officers build ties and work closely with community members. Even with the overwhelming number of those who support community policing, only 9.8% say the LAPD’s role is to work with and be part of the community. A large number say that their role is to serve, protect and enforce laws (71.1%).

To learn more of the results of this study, visit StudyLA’s full article here.

ISA Marks 35 Years

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century.

After 35 years at ISA, and almost 40 in market research, what keeps me motivated and looking to the future? Technologies that once seemed like science fiction are now an everyday occurrence. It’s not just the growth of the company and the expansion of our offerings that excites me, its seeing our clients and employees flourish.

When I began my career at Suburban Associates at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ, everything was completed on paper. The company did not even have hand-held calculators! Tabulations were done with punch cards. Move ahead to 2017 — where paper and pencil are considered the dark ages and where ISA completes projects involving passive metering, insight communities, our own MySoapBox Mobile app, projects in Somalian, Urdu and Hmong and large complicated automotive clinics. Diversification is part of our business culture. Our offerings will continue to change and grow in response to dynamic changes in the industry.

We have amazing clients and employees. It would be great to acknowledge all of them by name, but that would take 25 pages. You know who you are. Several of our clients have been with us almost as long as I have. There are ten employees who have been with us for over 25 years and four of those for over 30. It has been a privilege to watch many of our employees meet their significant others here, (or while employed here) and have children. I met my wife, Taylor, at ISA.

Reflecting back on the 35 years of our growth and accomplishments, I am pleased with our ability to continue advancing our expertise in multicultural research. ISA has completed projects in 67 languages, to date, and has been awarded three Researcher of the Year Awards by the Asian American Advertising Federation. (The 3AF) Our four divisions, ISA, Q-insights, SoapBoxSample and icanmakeitbetter, all continue this tradition by offering their services in multiple languages.

Watching the next generation of ISA flourish has been fun. Many were born in the 1990’s, and soon we will have the first who were born in this century. Viewed through the lens of five different decades of being in market research, I feel very fortunate to be a part of this growth and change.

By my rough estimate, in 35 years we’ve conducted around $400 million dollars in research for our clients. That’s not a big number when you look at the entire industry but it’s significant to us.

None of our accomplishments were done in a vacuum. Alongside me were accomplished, supportive partners; Arnie Fishman, Dave Sackman, Tony Kretzmer, Michael Liebergall and Sy Lieberman. They need to be acknowledged as well. ISA would not have thrived without them.

It’s been a great ride and it’s not over yet! I can’t wait to see what our team has planned for tomorrow, next week, next year and into the future. With warmest regards and respect to all our friends, colleagues, current and former employees, thank you for allowing me to join you on this journey.

 

Michael Halberstam

Chairman, ISA