or the first time in our history, the PBA has commissioned a prestigious polling firm to perform a completely anonymous attitude survey of all our members. While your delegates, trustees and other board members know your attitudes about important issues, the PBA needs to measure them scientifically to use as ammunition in the fight for a contract providing better compensation, better working conditions and fair and honest treatment by the department.

While most of us view surveys as an annoyance, this survey is important to you and your future. You may be surprised by some of the questions it asks. It’s serious business, so we ask you to treat it that way. Please fill it out and return it as soon as possible after receiving it.

A scientific survey is a tried and true method of measuring people’s attitudes and we want to take advantage of that method. We’ve all seen the commercials: “Ninety-seven percent of dentists surveyed say this toothpaste is the best.” Americans put stock in statistics and believe what surveys tell them. Well, we want to be able to put a solid percentage number on how we all feel about important topics like compensation, crime statistics, staffing levels, training and equipment and the like so we can speak authoritatively, with scientific evidence supporting our needs.

Soon, Harris Interactive — the people known across the nation for their Harris Poll — will be sending you a four-page, easy-to-complete attitude survey. It will attempt to measure your attitudes about the job, field practices and compensation.

You will receive it with a postage-paid return envelope pre-addressed to Harris Interactive. All you have to do after filling in the form is put it in the envelope and drop it in the mailbox.

Harris Interactive will then tally all the information, analyze and interpret the results and provide a report to the PBA. The PBA may then use the results to help in contract negotiations and part of the survey may be made public to support the needs of our members.

The survey is absolutely anonymous. There are no serial numbers, scanner codes or identifying features of any kind on the survey. That’s so you can fill it out honestly without having to worry about it coming back to haunt you during your career. The survey does ask you to identify your command and work function so they can measure your response against those of other commands.

You may be wondering why we’re going through this process when we all already know how we feel about the job, the pay and what goes on in the field. Well, knowing it in your gut is one thing, but documenting it in an honest, scientific survey allows the PBA to take these issues to the department and the public with solid information backing it up. So fill it out and send it back so we can get busy making the results work for you.

    Patrick J. Lynch, President