Request #8256

Greetings,
My name is Shane Diller and I am Doctoral Candidate at West Chester University performing a study related to code enforcement’s impact on crime rates. I’m contacting you to assist in gathering publicly available information regarding selected California cities’ code enforcement programs. My research will analyze whether various factors related to code enforcement departments’ activity correlate to crime rates the cities report to the U.S. Department of Justice, via Uniform Crime Reports (UCRs). This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at West Chester University, (IRB #00005030). To complete this study on schedule, I would appreciate your response by January 20, 2022.
To complete this study, I need to understand the answers to the following questions:
1. What was your department’s/division’s total budget in 2019?
2. What was your departments total staffing in 2019 (If there was turnover or changes, an average is fine)?
3. From the options below, how would you describe how your department/division performs code enforcement?
a. Proactively (only patrolling for violations)
b. Mostly proactively, with some response to complaints
c. Mostly reactively, primarily responding to complaints while addressing some violations proactively when staff observes them?
d. Reactively (only in response to complaints)
4. What was your department’s total case load in 2019?
5. If your code enforcement function is not a standalone department, what department houses this function?
6. From the list below, what code violations/nuisances does your department address?
a. Property Maintenance/blight
b. Abandoned Vehicles
c. Illegal/unpermitted business activity
d. Unpermitted construction
e. Unlawful camping/vagrancy
7. Do you enforce your codes:
a. Criminally
b. Civilly (lawsuits, injunctions, or receiverships)
c. Administratively (administrative citations, fees, abatements)
d. A combination of any two of the above
Your responses will be coded anonymously into the studies datasets and no staff names, departments, or cities will be identified. The data analysis will compare only the coded responses to the city’s crime rate and those findings will be presented in comparison to other similar sized cities anonymously.
If you have any questions, or need clarification on this study or these questions, I encourage your engagement at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at this email or at (916) 275-0605. I thank you in advance for your assistance in this important project.
Sincerely,

Shane G. Diller, MPA, CCEA
Doctoral Candidate, West Chester University
West Chester, Pennsylvania