Overwhelming majority satisfied with Saskatoon Police Service

The majority of residents in Saskatoon are overwhelming satisfied with Saskatoon Police Service according to a new survey. 

The survey by Insightrix, Community Satisfaction and Policing Priority, was commissioned by Saskatoon Police Service. 

In a telephone survey between September 28 and October 17, 2011, Insightrix asked a number of questions to measure the levels of satisfaction with police services. 

Overall, 91.8 per cent of the respondents said they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the police service. This is up from 90.3 per cent in 2008. 

For Aboriginals, satisfaction levels rose to 89 per cent from 80 per cent in 2008 while the perception of safety rose slightly to 74.1 per cent compared to 74.1 per cent in 2008. 

On the issue of safety, 24.1 per cent said they felt either somewhat or very unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhoods after dark, down slightly from 25.3 per cent in 2008. 

Last fall, 72 per cent of the respondents in Global Saskatoon’s Canada’s Pulse poll said they feel safe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night.  

City wide, the top three issues in the Insightrix survey were traffic violations/speeding, gang activity and drug law enforcement. 

Traffic violations were also the number one issue for neighbourhoods, followed by break and enter and vandalism. 

Police say although the numbers have improved, more work still needs to be done to improve Aboriginal relationships in the community. 

Insightrix surveyed 533 people between September 28 and October 17, 2011 and says the confidence level of the results is 95 per cent. 

This is the fourth survey done by Saskatoon Police Service to measure perceptions of policing and safety in the community. Previous surveys were done in 2002, 2005 and 2008.