Majority of residents feel police doing good job: survey

Nearly three-quarters of Lethbridge residents who responded to a recent survey feel the Lethbridge Police Service is doing a good job policing the community.

The survey was presented to the Lethbridge Police Commission during their May meeting last week by Insp. Jason Doberstein.

The survey was conducted by Faron Ellis, PhD Research Chair through Lethbridge College, in February of this year, and involved college students interviewing 1,501 randomly-selected adult residents by phone.

“It’s really what we expected from previous reports,” said Doberstein. “I don’t think there are any shocks when I read the report.”

The survey found 69 per cent of residents believe LPS is doing a good job of meeting the expectations they have for the police service.

Only 5.7 per cent thought LPS was doing a poor job. Roughly one-fifth, or 20.9 per cent, felt LPS is doing an adequate job.

In regards to personnel, 91.2 per cent of respondents said LPS behave in a polite and respectful manner. Less than two per cent would classify officer behaviour as “very impolite and disrespectful.”

“The residents who had contact with police were just as happy that they had done a good job,” said Doberstein.

When it comes to community safety, however, the numbers were not as positive. The survey revealed 52.9 per cent of people felt very safe in their neighbourhoods while 40.3 per cent felt “somewhat safe.”

In terms of whether they felt more or less safe than a year ago, 72.3 per cent felt just as safe, 15.9 per cent felt less safe compared to 11.8 per cent who felt more safe. In this instance, women were twice as likely (20.8 per cent compared to 10.8 per cent) to feel “less safe” in their community.

Of the 15.9 per cent who felt less safe, 38.2 per cent stated property crime was the primary reason, followed by 16.2 per cent (representing 2.5 per cent of all respondents) who said violent crime was the their main concern.

Ten per cent felt societal changes, drugs, or undesirable people made them feel less safe. And 6.4 per cent (one per cent of all respondents) stated police problems were the reason they feel less safe.

About 53.2 per cent of respondents said they feel somewhat safe downtown, and 23.1 per cent feel very safe. 18.9 per cent stated they do not feel safe, and 4.8 per cent said they feel very unsafe.

“Those most likely to frequent downtown were also those most likely to have contact with the LPS,” said Chief Rob Davis. “This is clearly a reflection of LPS efforts to be visible.”

When asked about priorities for police, the majority of respondents rated crime prevention as the top of the list, followed by drug enforcement, community visibility, and traffic enforcement.

Follow @JWSchnarrHerald on Twitter