As there has been much concern in our community about crime and mischief occurring, and some of our neighbors are working for the US Census this month doing some mapping confirmation, I wanted to share some information about their work, so we aren’t alarmed when they come by our homes and can recognize them by their ID and what they are there for. Here’s the response to my questions from the Tompkins County Census committee. There’s a lot of info here about the next many months of canvassing for various tasks.
Beth McGee, Enfield Town Supervisor
1) All Census Bureau employees will be wearing a government badge around their necks with an id photo. During address canvassing any field workers will also very likely have a Census Bureau shoulder bag and a handheld laptop.
2) Field workers are trained on how to deal with many different types of difficult situations they may encounter. They are absolutely NOT expected to stay in situations where they feel uncomfortable or unsafe to push for information. If the first employee to visit a household can’t get what is needed, someone else will visit. Often a different personality is all it takes to work out a problem. During the Non-Response Follow-Up operation next spring, Census Takers carry language identification cards for when they encounter residents who do not speak English; the protocol is to try to identify the language spoken by the household and send another Census Taker who speaks that language.
During the address canvassing operation (August-October 2019), census workers may knock on doors and ask names, addresses and questions about how many housing units are within the structure. But in some situations it may not be necessary to engage directly with residents to acquire the information we need – it might be clear from the sidewalk. It’s understandable that in communities with a recent rash of break-ins, someone walking down the street recording information about houses on a laptop might create even more fear. There is an interactive map inter-active map that shows exactly where address canvassing work will take place (only 30% of Tompkins County).
You can see the map in finer detail here [1]. Zoom way in to find your neighborhood.
Here are some good links that explain why there are Census Takers in your neighborhood.
1. Census Canvassing Map