Best questions for police officer survey about radio and dispatch reliability

Here are some of the best questions for a police officer survey about radio and dispatch reliability, along with tips for designing them. Want to move faster? You can build your own survey with Specific in seconds—just prompt, tweak, and share.

Best open-ended questions for radio and dispatch reliability surveys

Open-ended questions are your go-to when you need detailed feedback—nuanced insights that simple yes/no answers can’t deliver. When Police Officers have room to explain concerns, it reveals not only what’s broken, but also why. This matters more than ever, given communication breakdowns like those documented during major events—on September 11, about a third of police radio messages were incomplete or unintelligible, underscoring how much is at stake. [1]

1. Can you describe a recent situation where radio or dispatch reliability directly affected your response?

2. What challenges do you most often encounter with our current radio systems?

3. In your experience, what aspects of dispatch reliability need the most improvement?

4. How do communication issues impact officer safety in the field?

5. What suggestions do you have for improving radio clarity during high-stress incidents?

6. How would you rate the consistency of dispatch support during urgent calls, and why?

7. Which features of our current dispatch process work well, and which fall short?

8. Can you share a time when timely communication made a positive difference to an incident’s outcome?

9. What feedback do you hear most often from colleagues regarding radio or dispatch performance?

10. How does radio and dispatch reliability vary depending on your location or shift?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for police radio and dispatch feedback

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you need quantifiable answers or want a low-pressure entry point on sensitive issues. For Police Officers busy on shift, making a quick selection (instead of writing an essay) is easier and encourages higher response rates. It’s also a great way to identify issues you want to dig into further with open-ended or follow-up questions. When you need the data in neat charts for command staff—that’s where these shine.

Question: How reliable do you find the radio communication system during typical day-to-day operations?

• Very reliable

• Somewhat reliable

• Occasionally unreliable

• Not reliable at all

Question: What’s the biggest issue you've experienced with dispatch communication?

• Delayed response

• Unclear instructions

• Equipment malfunction

• Other

Question: On average, how long does it take for dispatch to respond to high-priority calls?

• Less than 5 minutes

• 5–10 minutes

• 11–20 minutes

• More than 20 minutes

When to follow up with "why?" You should add a follow-up “why” question when you want to uncover the reasoning behind an answer. For example, if an officer selects “Occasionally unreliable” for radio reliability, a good follow-up is: “Can you give a recent example or describe what typically causes reliability issues?” This opens the door to actionable insights that raw numbers alone can’t reveal.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add an “Other” option when you know your list might not cover everything. If an officer selects “Other” and explains their issue, you might discover problems you didn't expect—fueling smarter follow-up questions and richer conversation.

NPS survey question for police radio and dispatch reliability

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—“How likely are you to recommend our radio and dispatch system to a colleague?”—is simple but powerful. For Police Officer surveys, it’s a fast gut check that reveals loyalty and satisfaction at a glance. You get a clear, quantifiable number, but you can also dig deeper with segmented follow-up questions for promoters, passives, and detractors. Notably, some departments have seen up to a 20% reduction in response times after making system improvements based on feedback. [3] Want to try it? Create an NPS survey instantly with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

If you want real, actionable insights—not just “surface data”—follow-up questions are a must. They’re the engine behind Specific’s automated followup feature, letting the survey adapt and probe like an expert interviewer. Automated AI follow-ups save time, cut down on manual back-and-forth, and keep the conversation feeling natural—even as you uncover deeper, context-rich feedback.

• Police Officer: “The radio sometimes doesn’t work well in the north sector.”

• AI follow-up: “What specific problems do you encounter in that area—is it dropped signals, static, or difficulty reaching dispatch?”

How many followups to ask? In practice, 2–3 targeted follow-up questions are plenty. That’s enough to capture detail without overwhelming respondents. And if you hit your goal early, just skip to the next main question—a flexible setting built right into Specific.

This makes it a conversational survey: Each followup builds a real conversation, not just a form—making feedback richer and response rates higher.

AI survey response analysis: Even with lots of open-text feedback, AI-powered tools make it easy to analyze all responses. Read more in our guide to AI survey analysis—you can filter, search, ask for summaries, and more, even with piles of unstructured data.

Dynamic, automated followups are new for many teams—give survey creation with Specific a spin to see what a truly conversational survey feels like.

How to prompt ChatGPT for great police radio and dispatch survey questions

Want to brainstorm questions with ChatGPT (or similar AI)? Start with a direct prompt like:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Police Officer survey about radio and dispatch reliability.

But the more context you give, the better the results. For example:

We are designing a survey for frontline Police Officers in a large metropolitan city to understand pain points with radio and dispatch reliability. The goal is to surface operational bottlenecks, safety issues, and communication breakdowns. Suggest 10 open-ended questions, each targeting a different angle.

After you’ve collected a wide set of questions, try organizing them:

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

Once you have your categories, prompt again:

Generate 10 questions for the category “Dispatch reliability during emergencies”.

This workflow works brilliantly in the Specific AI survey generator—our conversational editor functions just like ChatGPT, but instantly outputs a real survey, ready to go live.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a chat, not a form. Think of exchanging insights, clarifications, and mini followups—rather than just ticking boxes. With a platform like Specific, it means engaging respondents right where they are, adapting questions on the fly, and capturing depth you’d never get from a standard form. This approach is a game changer for Police Officer surveys about radio and dispatch reliability, when context and clarity really matter.

Why use AI for Police Officer surveys? Departments are busy, and missing context in survey responses can delay improvements. AI-powered conversational surveys like Specific’s make collecting (and analyzing) nuanced feedback radically faster and less painful. For an AI survey example and more info, check out our how-to guide for survey creation.

Bottom line: Specific gives you a best-in-class conversational experience, built for serious feedback and smooth for both survey creators and respondents.

See this radio and dispatch reliability survey example now

Unlock deeper, actionable insights from Police Officers with a conversational AI-powered survey—engineered for clarity, nuance, and high response rates. Start gathering the feedback you actually need in minutes, not hours.