Best questions for police officer survey about officer safety

Here are some of the best questions for a police officer survey about officer safety, plus tips on how to create them. If you’re ready to generate an Officer Safety survey in seconds, you can build yours with Specific.

Best open-ended questions for officer safety surveys

Open-ended questions let officers describe their experiences and concerns in their own words, revealing details that structured questions can miss. They’re essential when you want honest stories and actionable insights, especially in a sensitive area like officer safety, where context really matters.

Here are 10 strong open-ended questions you can use:

1. What are your biggest concerns about safety while on duty?

2. Describe a situation where you or a colleague felt unsafe in the field. What contributed to that feeling?

3. What changes have you noticed in officer safety risks over the past year?

4. Can you share an example of how safety protocols either helped or failed during a dangerous situation?

5. What obstacles prevent you from following safety procedures consistently?

6. How effective do you find the current training on officer safety topics?

7. What additional resources would help you feel safer at work?

8. Are there specific locations or shifts where you feel safety risks are greatest?

9. What feedback do you have about communication from leadership regarding safety issues?

10. In your opinion, what’s the single most important change to improve officer safety?

With assaults on U.S. law enforcement reaching a **ten-year high in 2023 with over 79,000 incidents reported** [1], it’s clear that listening directly to frontline experiences gives leadership the detail they need for real change.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for officer safety

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need to quantify opinions or spot patterns quickly. Sometimes it’s easier for officers to pick from a few succinct options than to formulate a full response. These questions can kickstart a conversation, and then you can dig deeper with follow-ups.

Question: How confident do you feel in your personal safety during routine patrols?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Somewhat concerned

• Very concerned

Question: Which factor do you think most increases safety risks for officers in your area?

• Staffing shortages

• Equipment limitations

• Training gaps

• Community tensions

• Other

Question: How effective are the current protocols for dealing with vehicle incidents?

• Highly effective

• Somewhat effective

• Needs improvement

• Not effective

When to follow up with "why?" If an officer selects "very concerned" about safety, asking "Why do you feel this way?" uncovers the specific causes—maybe staffing shortages or equipment issues. These follow-ups deliver the actionable insight you need to address real problems.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Use "Other" when all common responses might not cover the situation. Officers may see risks or solutions you haven’t listed. By prompting a follow-up when someone selects "Other", you capture new insights you never would have thought to ask about.

NPS for officer safety: does it fit?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question is about willingness to recommend—usually for products, but it adapts well to officer safety surveys. For example, you might ask: "On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend our safety procedures to a fellow officer?" This tells you, at a glance, who trusts the system and who doesn’t. An NPS-style question is simple, instantly scorable, and sharpens focus on confidence in protocols. Want to try it? Tap into this ready-made NPS survey for police officers about officer safety.

The power of follow-up questions

Open-ended responses are gold, but often need context. If you stop at one question, you risk getting answers that are too vague to act on. That’s why automated AI follow-up questions—like those Specific offers—matter so much. They instantly ask smart, clarifying questions based on what the officer just said, just like a skilled interviewer. This saves hours you’d otherwise spend emailing back and forth for clarification, and it draws out the full story in just minutes. Learn more about the AI follow-up questions feature and how to use it in your surveys.

• Officer: "Sometimes I don’t feel safe during late shifts."

• AI follow-up: "What specific factors during late shifts contribute to feeling unsafe?"

How many follow-ups to ask? Two or three targeted follow-up questions are usually enough. With Specific, you can set how deep to dig, or automatically skip ahead when you have what you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: It doesn’t feel like a form—it’s a real back-and-forth that captures deeper stories and makes officers more willing to open up.

AI-assisted analysis, AI response summaries, survey response analysis: Don’t worry about all the unstructured responses—AI makes it straightforward to analyze and summarize officer feedback. Learn how to analyze responses from an officer safety survey step by step, or explore the AI survey response analysis feature for exploring trends and key insights.

Automated follow-up questions are still a new idea, and they completely transform feedback. Try generating your own survey to see the difference—and how natural the conversation feels.

How to write great prompts for gpt-powered survey builders

Start by being specific: “Suggest 10 open-ended questions for police officer survey about officer safety.” The AI will give better, more actionable questions if you add more detail about your audience, your goals, or any special context. For instance:

Officer safety is a major issue for our department. We want to understand concerns, workplace challenges, and suggestions for improvement. Generate 10 open-ended questions to collect honest, detailed feedback from police officers about their on-duty safety experiences and ideas for change.

Once you’ve got your initial questions, prompt the AI:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, review the categories. Pick those most important to your situation, then dig deeper with another prompt:

Generate 10 questions for these categories: Protocol effectiveness, Training gaps, Leadership communication.

This process surfaces questions you may never have thought of—and lets the AI do the heavy lifting.

What is a conversational survey?

Most survey tools look like a long, impersonal form. With AI survey generators like Specific, you get something completely different: a fast, natural chat that adapts to each respondent. The AI asks the right questions, follows up for detail, and makes the process almost effortless for officers.

Why use AI for police officer surveys? Officer feedback isn’t always black and white. AI survey examples—like those generated by Specific—let you capture subtle stories and emotions while making it super easy for officers to participate, even on a phone during a busy shift.

Conversational surveys are not just more engaging—they unlock better data, faster turnaround, and smarter analysis. Specific delivers the best-in-class experience for building and running conversational surveys. Learn more about how to create a survey for police officer safety and explore the many ways to start with AI-powered survey generation.

See this officer safety survey example now

Want insights you can act on? See how conversational surveys reveal what matters most to officers—get started with the survey example and experience the immediate clarity and deeper feedback you can’t get anywhere else.