GENESEO, Ill. — The Geneseo Police Department wants to hear from its community.
Department officials launched a new community feedback survey on Friday, looking for comments about interactions with the department.
"I think it will be a positive outcome," said Officer George Marquez, a three-year department veteran, who worked previously at the Henry County Sheriff's Office.
The community survey, though, is a first for the department.
"We'll take whatever we can get," Marquez said.
Officer Marquez is the one in charge of collecting the community's feedback and lessons for the department.
"They can kinda rate us on how they felt during this whole procedure," Marquez said.
It is the department's attempt to gain even more trust, and increase transparency, Marquez said.
"Hopefully every single year from now on we can put the survey out and see where we're at," Marquez said.
Getting that survey, though, might be as easy as getting pulled over.
"We'd like to get your positive, your feedback you're honest about because it just happened," Marquez said.
It is a deliberate move, to gain almost instant feedback from the community.
"I'm giving out this community survey, use your phone there, the QR code there, you can rate me on my stop here and our interaction, just be honest," Officer Marquez explained to a driver he stopped Friday afternoon.
Officer Marquez said that process should lead to more feedback.
"Not everybody's gonna get on Facebook, so we thought this was the best, almost the best way to give someone a chance to voice their opinion," Marquez said.
Once the survey is complete, department staff will start looking for trends.
"If there's something the community wants and we have the resources to do it, we want to try it," Marquez said.
For now, they're making each traffic stop a lesson.
The community survey is open through December 31, 2021, on the City of Geneseo's website. It is also available on the city's Facebook page.