Crime and confidence: Edmonton police update by the numbers

EDMONTON – While the results have yet to be published, Edmonton Police Service Chief Rod Knecht shared some unofficial highlights from EPS’ biennial Citizen Satisfaction Survey with reporters on Friday. Here’s a look at some of the results:

By the numbers

94 per cent – The amount of all survey respondents who had confidence in EPS, up one percentage point from 2014.

83 per cent – The amount of all survey respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that EPS was providing adequate service levels to the public, up three percentage points since 2014.

88 per cent – The amount of all survey respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that officer competency is up, up eight percentage points since 2014.

89 per cent – The amount of all survey respondents who rate EPS as excellent or average, up two percentage points since 2014.

31 per cent – The amount of respondents who had contact with Edmonton police over the past 12 months. Of those respondents, here’s how they rated their satisfaction with EPS through various forms of contact:

– By telephone, 86 per cent were satisfied, up two percentage points from 2014;

– By police officer dispatch, 86 per cent were satisfied , up three percentage points over 2014;

– By police station, 86 per cent were satisfied, the same percentage as in 2014;

– By online, 86 per cent were satisfied, up four percentage points since 2014;

– By EPS-initiated contact, 84 per cent were satisfied, up three percentage points since 2014.

Knecht also provided some new crime statistics for the city of Edmonton and said the most significant is that, while crime continues to rise, the increase is slowing from the past few years.

“They’ve been going up dramatically over the last three years and they were up significantly last year and we’re seeing those start to level off and that’s good news,” he said.

Knecht said property crimes accounted for the largest spike in offences in the last year, up 22 per cent from the year before.

“I would suggest maybe the economy has something to do with that 22 per cent increase and perhaps the good weather as well would be a contributor to that,” he said. “Break and enters are up a dramatic 21 per cent and that’s something that impacts the general public in a significant way.”