City lawmakers receive preliminary data from community safety survey

“We are not seeing as much in that ownership of community safety,” she said. “[There is] a little bit more of an opportunity to bring people in and have them be an active voice in community safety more generally.”

While over 50 per cent of participants admitted they were victims of crime, Hodgkinson said those who were victimized tend to gravitate to and participate in the survey as they feel a greater investment in the outcome. A large portion of the crime reported was property crime, not violent.

When it comes to procedural justice and policing, overall, people are quite content with both, reporting an above average approval compared to national averages. Respondents were, however, less likely to feel as though police are dealing with drug activity in the community.

Survey data showed residents would like to see an increased police presence, which Hodgkinson said can be difficult to achieve in a smaller community due to resources and a lack of beat officers on the street.

People in North Battleford generally feel incredibly safe in their neighbourhoods despite the overwhelming stigma, with 91.8 per cent of respondents feeling very safe during the day. A little over half reported feeling unsafe walking at night, which Hodgkinson said is not unsurprising and common across Canada and internationally.

The survey asked people to rank where they feel most and least safe in the city. The safest area selected was a segment of Killdeer Park, with 14 per cent of respondents who said this live there. Where people feel the least safe is downtown, however, only 3.8 per cent of people who said that actually live there.

“That really comes down to the fact that residential populations aren’t present so they don’t translate that into the ownership of the space,” she said. “There are not people there after 5 [p.m.] at night so you don’t have that nighttime economy that makes people feel like there are legitimate users in that space.”

Making people feel unsafe downtown is those who appear drunk or under the influence, while respondents felt safe in neighbourhoods that had less poverty and where more familiar people are around.

“That feeling of safety really has to do with the folk who are in that area,” Hodgkinson said. “What that possibly could mean is, of course, that there is a type of people who are in those neighbourhoods and they look different than the folks who are making those comments so we do want to be really cognizant of that as part of the discussion going forward.”

She said there needs to be talks on how to build relationships across the city and shifting some of the narratives.

The survey required 374 respondents for accurate representation, but 615 usable responses spread around each neighbourhood were submitted. Students from North West College assisted in obtaining respondents.

The next steps, Hodgkinson said, will be to apply for grants to undertake a three to five-year crime prevention strategy. Plans are on the table to get involved with the Australian Research Council as they have linkage grants to investigate rural crime prevention techniques as Australia, like Canada, are two of only a handful of nations who see higher rural than urban crime rates. Data from community safety officers, the RCMP and the hospital emergency room are being aggregated to the neighbourhood level to help with deeper analysis.

“There has never been this level of data collection in a rural community,” she said. “It is a great opportunity to see how things change and what strategies are working and what are not and gives us insight into areas for support and prevention work.”

After the meeting, Mayor Ryan Bater said the data is important as it is crucial to understand what people in the city are thinking.

Asked if he thought fighting actual crime or perceived crime is simpler, Bater pointed to the latter, at least from a municipal perspective, as the city has an ability to educate the public on what is going on. However, he maintains the city continues to battle both.

“We have people living and visiting the community who get a perception based on that crime data. One does impact the other and so we have to deal with them both at the same time,” he said. “What drives crime in this area are factors that are not under a municipal purview.”

He pointed to this as backing for the recently signed Sacichawasihc Relationship Agreement, which will see seven levels of government work together for the betterment of the region.

“That is pretty profound and I am very excited and hopeful for the results because I know working alone, we see failure but, when we work together, we have a higher degree for success,” Bater added. “And we need to engage the higher orders of government … into this process.”

A more detailed final report on the survey results is expected to be presented to council at a later date.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr

by Tyler Marr

City lawmakers receive preliminary data from community safety survey

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