St. Louis Missouri Policing Survey

The City of St. Louis, in partnership with the Center for Policing Equity (CPE)

The City of St. Louis, in partnership with the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), commissioned MDR to conduct the 2024 St. Louis Policing Survey to better understand residents’ experiences and perceptions of public safety and policing. This initiative was part of a broader effort to promote equity and transparency in law enforcement practices and to inform future policy decisions. MDR was responsible for survey implementation, data collection, and data processing, while CPE led survey development and Institutional Review Board (IRB) review. 

The survey targeted adult residents (18+) of St. Louis and was designed to be inclusive of historically underserved communities. MDR employed a rigorous address-based sampling (ABS) strategy with a push-to-web methodology, chosen for its cost-effectiveness and ability to yield representative data. Oversampling was conducted for Black, Asian, Latino, and foreign-born residents, as well as Census tracts with elevated police call volumes, ensuring robust representation of communities with frequent law enforcement interactions. 

The survey instrument, developed by CPE, included up to 71 questions and was translated into Spanish, Vietnamese, and Bosnian to accommodate linguistic diversity. MDR programmed the survey using Voxco and managed all aspects of recruitment and fieldwork. Invitations were mailed to 9,549 sampled addresses, followed by reminder postcards and final letters to non-respondents. Each household received a unique survey link and QR code, and respondents were offered a $25 incentive for participation. 

A total of 1,286 valid surveys were completed, yielding a response rate of 13.5%. MDR conducted data cleaning, verification, and weighting, but did not perform analysis; that responsibility remained with CPE. Final deliverables provided by MDR included: 

  • A finalized work plan and timeline 
  • Programmed survey with translations 
  • Sampling and analytical plans 
  • Cleaned and weighted datasets (in .csv or .rda format) 
  • A comprehensive data compendium with subgroup breakdowns and confidence intervals 

This rigorous, equity-focused survey design (using oversampling, multilingual materials, and incentives) captured diverse St. Louis residents’ perspectives on policing and provided CPE with high-quality, representative data for policy and transparency efforts.