More patrols and greater police visibility are at the top of the minds of residents of the City of Greater Sudbury, according to a survey conducted by the OraclePoll Research Limited for the city's police service.
The company was commissioned to conduct a community survey to determine the residents' concerns about police services and crime in their city and to seek their input on how to address those concerns while improving the quality of police services.
Among those surveyed, 62 percent said there are too few officers and 54 percent would pay higher taxes to put more of them on the street.
Though property crimes were ranked the second most important issue among the residents, the issue saw a four percent decrease since the 2003 survey.
However, it is still an issue Chief of Police Ian Davidson said is a top priority for the police service when developing their new business plan for 2008-2010.
“One of the concerns that was fairly obvious to us was the length of time we take in getting back to complainants and victims of crime, particularly in the areas of property crime,” he said. “Property crime is a very personal type of crime and we're looking at redesigning some of our services and our processes so we can improve that contact.”
Though the results of the OraclePoll were just passed on to the police and no plans have been finalized at this point, Davidson said they are looking at designating a liaison person to deal specifically with property crimes.
“That person would examine all the property crime reports and contact the victims to determine if there is any further information or anything else we can do,” he said. “Part of the ways we will improve satisfaction for the people we serve is to improve our communications with them.”
Other issues at the top of the minds of Sudburians are safety, drugs, youth crime and vehicular crime issues, including aggressive and impaired driving.
“The survey is done every three years and remains unchanged,” Davidson said. “We know the data and the research we're doing is consistent so we can determine whether we're improving our service delivery or whether it needs improvement.”
In overall satisfaction of the quality of police services in the City of Greater Sudbury, 42 percent of respondents felt the quality has improved over the last three years, a 14 percent increase from the 2004 survey.
“We're very pleased with some of the results in terms of the satisfaction level from our community but the survey also points to areas we can get better at,” Davidson said. “We're going to focus a lot of our efforts on trying to improve those services.”
The full OraclePoll report will be available to the public through the Greater Sudbury Police Service website.
