MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board is moving forward with focus group data collection to work toward establishing a baseline for community perceptions of the police department.
Board member Megan Gandy said the initial process has included three groups and will expand as the year progresses.
“We’ve been able to run three groups so far, and those were groups that were specific stakeholders that had a particular stake in the safety and policing situations,” Gandy said. “Focused on downtown, but not exclusively.”
The initial process has also included some individual interviews with people who are using social services in Morgantown. The people are also being asked to participate in a focus group in addition to answering the questions in the survey.
“We’ve had some interviews with people that go to the Red Door for their meal time, and we’ve also gone to other social service agencies around town to invite those folks to join the focus groups,” Gandy said.
The next phase of the study will include public meetings at the Morgantown Public Library to get a broader sampling of public opinion. On Wednesday, Aug. 14, a meeting will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m.; on Saturday, Aug. 24, the meeting will be from 9:30 to 11 a.m.; on Tuesday, Aug. 27, a meeting is planned from 5:30 to 7 p.m.; and a Zoom session will be offered on Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
“We are trying to limit the size of the groups just because it becomes difficult to hear everybody and let everybody have a chance to speak, so I really need people to RSVP to me.”
A request has been submitted to the city for the paper survey. A special request has been made to the city to fund the $10,000 paper survey, but the board is planning for a request through normal channels.
“We’ll just enter a budgetary request under the normal budgetary cycle, which you submit in December and then they discuss and implement in March,” Gandy said. “So, the funds would be available to us starting with the next fiscal year, which would be July 2025.”
“To present the data and help us make sense of it,” Gandy said. “This is all a very democratic and community-engaged process, so it’s important that the community members are involved.”
The board has formed a work group to study the proposed expanded camping ban in the city and research crime in the downtown.