Safe and Healthy Community

Elgin strives to be a safe and healthy community for all who live, work or visit. On its most basic level, the community’s sense of safety is solidified by the City’s high quality police and fire services. However, it is recognized that the safety of a community is broader than emergency responsiveness. A safe and healthy community includes well-maintained infrastructure, clean drinking water, strong community partnerships, engaged residents and businesses and intentional planning strategies to ensure a desirable and responsible future community. The well-being and engagement of our residents is supported by the strong, diverse network of human services and nonprofits in the community.

Baseline Measurements

Elgin's community survey is the primary means of collecting feedback from residents. Elgin's last survey was conducted in 2017, the results of which serve as the baseline that progress on the Strategic Principles and Priorities can be measured against. The actual survey had more than 500 questions. A comprehensive data set for download is available here. A summary of the responses to the questions related to the Strategic Goal of being a Safe an Healthy Community is presented below.

Safe and Healthy Avg Response Score

While in the past this category might have only included emergency response metrics, the City of Elgin's definition of being a Safe and Healthy Community encompasses ensuring safe streets, recreational opportunities and being stewards of the environment.

For those categories within this Goal, there are many highlights. Of the 80+ questions related to this Goal the top 10 in terms of most positive (respondents that indicated either Very Satisfied (5) or Satisfied (4) are below. "Weighted Value" refers to the total score of that questions, with the highest rating of 5 and the lowest of 1.

Safe and Healthy Top Ten Positive

From a categorical perspective the breakdown within this goal also identifies opportunities to improve City services. Code enforcement for instance received an average positive rating of 40 percent.Safe and Healthy Category Breakdown

By drilling down further, we can see what areas of Code Enforcement should be focused on over the life of this Plan. The relatively high percentage of those that either are "Neutral" or "Don't Know" represented by the Outreach Opportunity metric, indicates that public education is a vital piece of improving these perceptions.

Code Enforcement Drill Down

Actionable Objectives