BC Policing and Community Safety Plan - Ministry of Justice ...

Key findings from the public surveyOverall the results show that the public has greater confidence in the police than we are often led to believe.Specifically, four out of five British Columbians (or 79 per cent) had quite a lot or a great deal of confidence intheir local police. Similarly, four out five British Columbians who had contact with a police officer in the past 12months were satisfied with how police dealt with their matter. However, the level of confidence in police ingeneral (rather than local police) was significantly lower at 69 per cent. Taken together the results speak to asubstantial level of fundamental trust in our police, despite some negative publicity and events in recent years.A number of different surveys have recently reported different results on confidence in policing in Canada andBritish Columbia. Survey results can vary substantially due to the sample size (number of people surveyed) aswell the phrasing of the questions. This is why for our survey we ensured that the sample size was large (i.e.2,400) in order to have robust results. By comparison, the most recent survey reported in the media in earlyJanuary 2013, which found low levels of support for the RCMP in British Columbia, reportedly surveyed only 131British Columbia residents (and only 1,021 Canadians overall).Our survey did indicate, however, that there were some areas of police performance that could be improved –only 59 per cent of people said that the police did a good job of treating people fairly, and only 48 per cent ofpeople said that police did a good job of supplying information to reduce crime.When considering fear of crime, the results were overall also positive. The vast majority (94 per cent) of BritishColumbians were satisfied to varying degrees with their personal safety from crime. An overwhelming majority(96 per cent) felt safe when home alone in the evening and a somewhat lower majority (77 per cent) felt safewhen walking alone after dark.The crimes that were of concern to most survey respondents were having credit card details stolen andmisused (72 per cent) and being in an accident caused by a drunk driver (68 per cent).It is of concern that overall 17 per cent of British Columbians reported being a victim of at least one crime in thepast 12 months, and that over one-third of these people did not report the crime. The most common reasonsfor not reporting a crime were that it was not important enough (which suggests a relatively minor crime) orthat the police could not do anything about it. The lack of reporting is a concern as it means that official crimestatistics do not provide the complete picture, and victims of crime may not receive the help that could havebeen provided had they reported the incident.Significantly, this survey provides us with some important key measures that we can monitor and track over time.Draft plan consultation feedbackBetween February and September of 2013, stakeholders and the public were invited to review a draft of theBritish Columbia Policing and Community Safety Plan (the Plan) and submit feedback to the province.Feedback was received from a variety of stakeholders and members of the public either through writtensubmissions, emails, or blog posts. Generally speaking, feedback on the Plan was positive; however, manyrespondents were of the view that the draft Plan did not go far enough in proposing reforms for policing.Other themes that emerged from the feedback included comments concerning the:Continuum of policing;Rising costs of policing and its relationship to the structure and funding of police services in the province;Interaction between mental health and policing; and,Crime prevention programs.56BRITISH COLUMBIA POLICING AND COMMUNITY SAFETY PLAN