Most Colorado Springs residents surveyed are satisfied with their police force.

In a telephone survey of 900 respondents last summer, 75 percent said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with how local police protect people, prevent crime and interact with the public. The California-based data collection company Interviewing Service of America was paid $24,950 to conduct the survey.

Officers also got high marks for helping crime victims, preventing violent crime, acting within the law and doing what’s right.

Eighty percent of those who said they’d had contact with the police reported being treated fairly. Ninety percent said they appreciate the officers’ use of body-worn cameras.

“We’re very pleased,” said Amanda Terrell-Orr, the police planning and compliance administrator. “The majority of citizens found us to be effective in what we do and said officers perform their duties well.”

Respondents were least satisfied with police response to traffic safety, with 45 percent saying they most feared being in a traffic accident.

That opinion came before the city ended the year with a record-breaking 48 traffic deaths, five more than the previous record set in 1986.

The numbers even led retiring Police Chief Pete Carey to distinguish traffic safety as the city’s No. 1 issue.

“When you leave here, getting back to the office in one piece on a cloudy, snowy day...is the biggest threat to you,” Carey previously told The Gazette. “It’s not gang violence. It’s not drug crimes or anything like that. It’s traffic safety.”

More than 50 percent of survey respondents said they were more afraid of getting in a traffic crash than of someone breaking into their house, robbing them at gun- or knife-point or assaulting them.

In the comments section at the end of the survey, respondents repeatedly said police “need to increase traffic enforcement,” especially on impaired, distracted and aggressive driving.

The department recently started beefing up enforcement and writing more speeding tickets, and that will continue, Terrell-Orr said.

“We’re looking at: Are resources deployed at the right times of day and in the right areas? We’re also working with traffic engineering, because some traffic problems are caused by difficulties in the roadway,” she said.

Respondents also gave the department low marks for response times and communication and said they feared being downtown at night.

The survey is meant to help the department understand the community’s policing priorities and perceptions. This survey was the first since 2011.

Contact the writer at 719-636-0362 or find her on Twitter: @njKaitlinDurbin.