Readers feel less safe(?)

The polls we run on the home page every weekday are informal, unscientific and generally meant to be fun. But we also try to get a sense of what SeattlePI.com users think about the bigger issues of the day.

Case in point: Yesterday's poll was the third time we asked if people felt safer than they did six months or a year earlier. It's interesting to compare the most recent responses with what we recorded previously:

Oct. 24, 2002 Overall, do you feel safer today than you did a year ago? 11.8% Yes 40.3% No 46.3% About the same 1.6% Not sure Total Votes: 1983

May 8, 2003 Overall, do you feel safer today than you did six months ago? 21.5% Yes 37.6% No 39.9% About the same 1.1% Not sure Total Votes: 2750

Oct. 27, 2003 Overall, do you feel safer today than you did a year ago? 12.7% Yes 47.0% No 39.3% About the same 1.0% Not sure Total Votes: 3341

What conclusions can be drawn from this? Maybe none, since the respondents are a self-selecting group and the question is pretty broad. Still, it's an intriguing reminder that it may be easier to beef up security measures than it is to boost peace of mind.