Edmontonians trust police despite growing crime rate, survey suggests | CBC News

Despite a majority of residents feeling unsafe amid an increasing crime rate, a report conducted on behalf of Edmonton’s police commission suggests a majority of Edmontonians see the city police as a trusted protector.

Stephanie Gazzola, impact and evaluation manager of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), presented the results of this year’s citizen perception survey at Thursday’s meeting of the Edmonton police commission.

The survey by research company Advanis, which polled 1,727 residents from May to June, found 57 per cent of Edmontonians surveyed feel satisfied with EPS and believe they are doing a good or excellent job.

It also found that more residents support the police and agree with how officers behave.

“This improvement reverses some trends that we saw over the past couple of years,” Gazzola told the commission.

Two-thirds feel unsafe on transit at night

Gazzola said Edmonton residents are more likely to be satisfied with EPS if they feel safe and have not been a victim of crime in the past year.

However, the report found 65 per cent of citizens surveyed believe crime is increasing, up significantly from the 47 per cent reported in 2022. Roughly two-thirds of residents surveyed don’t feel safe riding transit alone after dark.

Data released by EPS earlier this year show violent crime and crime severity in the city increased, with the number of violent criminal incidents in Edmonton rising from 12,909 in 2021 to 15,040 in 2022.

“On the other hand, for the first year in a row, we do have some evidence that EPS is helping residents to feel safer,” said Gazzola.

She said almost two-thirds of residents surveyed agreed that EPS is helping to make the city a safer place to live, and more than half said they feel safer when they notice increased patrols in their neighbourhood, mostly in the downtown core.

Chief Dale McFee told reporters Thursday afternoon that the reasons for the changing perceptions are multiple.

“It’s about building the relationships one at a time, ensuring that … we’re just consistent in that,” he said.

Commissioner Kemi Kufuor-Boakye argued at the commission that the survey may not accurately reflect the residents who have more interactions with police.

“I would also argue that people who engage in these types of surveys either have good interactions with policing or really bad, so are we really capturing true and pure data?” she said.

Does the survey reflect the community?

Brian Harker, strategies director for the Edmonton Police Service, said past surveying techniques did a poor job of accurately reflecting the community at large. The new methodology used by Advanis better reflects underrepresented populations, including people of colour and gender-diverse Edmontonians.

Still, he said there has been work over recent years to connect with racialized Edmontonians.

“There is a lot that we’re going to continue to do in regards to this,” he said, noting that 64 per cent of those surveyed reported being low-income.

“It’s not the be-all-end-all, but it does at least give some data points as to where we’re going.”

Commissioner Shazia Amiri questioned if the demographics of the survey are representative of Edmonton’s population when it comes to gender diversity and socioeconomic status. Gazzola confirmed the results are in line with Edmonton’s most recent census.

Harker also said the survey is a starting point for further engagement with households across the city. 

“The intent isn’t going to be mission accomplished; this is going to be data that’s going to continue to help us kind of evolve our service,” he said.

“But we want to make sure that we’re capturing Edmontonians.”