UPDATED: LPS Community Stakeholder and Public Opinion Survey results released

The Stakeholder Survey consisted of a 52-item questionnaire (according to the lab’s website, each question costs $600 dollars), and data were collected via the internet though a self-administered questionnaire.

It was also a non-probability study, so there was no margin of error. Nearly 51 percent were female, with 49 percent male. 2.6 per cent of respondents identified as either Metis, Status Indian or non-status Indian, while 2.5 per cent of respondents identified as LGBTQ+, and nearly 9 per cent said they were immigrants.

61 per cent of respondents said they had been in Lethbridge more than 20 years, while 21.5 per cent said they had lived in the city between five and 20 years.

There were 1300 invitations sent out to local stakeholders. 451 of them responded. Ellis says even though less than 35 per cent of those who were invited responded, those are still good numbers.

“Typically, when you get…if you only get five or 10 per cent, you can get some meaningful indicators, but it’s not enough. You get into the 20, 25 per cent range it’s good. Now we’ve got something solid. Anytime you get 30 per cent or into 35 per cent you’re doing something exceptionally well. So, by those standards we met pretty much the highest standard.”

A summary of the results shows that overall, stakeholder priorities included drug trafficking and property crimes at the top. Secondary concerns were panhandling, intoxication, vagrancy and crime prevention programs.

Generally, stakeholders feel very safe in most areas of the city during daytime hours and a majority also feel safe in most areas of the city at night, with the exception of the downtown and outdoor public events.

In the downtown area alone, nearly two-thirds of stakeholders felt somewhat unsafe or unsafe (66%) at night, and 55 per cent felt the same in outdoor public spaces. i.e. walking around Henderson Lake at night. That’s the first time LPS Inspector Tom Ascroft says they’ve seen numbers like that.

“It makes sense…we’ve seen a big shift about how people live their lives. The bars, for example, are not what they were 20 years ago. Shopping is not what it was, and how people conduct their business isn’t the same. Society changes, and it’s good that we’re aware of this though. We can attempt to address some of this with our programming in our upcoming budget.”

Nearly four out of five LPS Stakeholders evaluate LPS performance as good or very good, and they generally also view financial management performance positively.

Overall, about 21 per cent of stakeholders felt LPS performance was either poor or adequate, and 79 per cent felt police overall were doing a good job.

When it comes to financial management, nearly 64 per cent of stakeholders believe LPS is doing a very good or somewhat good job, while about 36 per cent felt overall fiscal management was either adequate, somewhat poor or very poor.

One area LPS was trying to get feedback on was the idea of instituting Community Peace Officers or Special Constables in various areas. That idea proved to be strongly supported with more than 75 per cent of respondents either somewhat supporting or strongly supporting the idea for administrative duties, in the downtown and to handle vagrancy, panhandling and public intoxication.

“Policing costs are high…this is a different way to have lower cost employees conducting some of the same stuff. We know that we have issues with public order; intoxication, things like that that don’t necessarily require a trained police officer armed, to deal with. So, can have a person with less training making less money doing a more effective job. For the same money, we can have more people doing it. And that’s one of the strategies.”

The Public Opinion Survey took place in mid-February, and students interviewed 1,288 randomly selected adult residents by telephone.

The results are accurate within a 2.7 per cent margin of error, 19 times out of 20. 49 per cent of those surveyed were male, and 51 per cent female. 43 per cent of those surveyed were between the ages of 18 and 44, while 56 percent of those surveyed were aged 45 and older.

32 percent of the respondents were from south Lethbridge, nearly 28 percent from the north side and just over 40 per cent were from the west side of the city.

About 18 percent had a high school or less education, 25 percent had some post-secondary education, while 57 per cent of those polled said they had a college, technology or university level education.

Overall, 61 per cent believe LPS is doing a good job meeting residents’ expectation about what a police service should be doing. That’s an 8 per cent decline from 2017. 39 per cent of those polled said overall, police were doing either an adequate or poor job.

Nearly 91 per cent of residents polled said officers are polite and respectful, with females clearly rating police as more respectful than males.

According to the study, positive evaluations increased with age, while negative evaluations were the highest among younger residents. Younger residents were more than twice as likely than seniors to evaluate LPS poorly.

Of those who said LPS was doing a poor or very poor job, one third cited a variety of general concerns about safety or societal problems, 15 per cent specifically mentioned drugs or drug trafficking as concerns, and 21 per cent were upset about traffic tickets and photo radar in particular. 16 percent cited police taking too long to respond to concerns or other operational inefficiencies.

One in six, or 16.6 per cent who evaluated Lethbridge Police poorly cited racism or discrimination as the reason, or less than one percent of the overall total respondents.

Nearly half (47.2 per cent) of those in the survey said they had been in contact with an LPS officer in the last year and approximately one in seven Lethbridge residents said they had called 9-1-1 in the last 12 months.

Of those people who called 9-1-1, men were just as likely as women to use 9-1-1 to contact police. Younger residents, especially those aged 30-44 and youth, were more likely to have used the service than were middle aged residents or seniors.

Those most likely to frequent downtown Lethbridge were also most likely to have used 9-1-1 to contact LPS. Of those who did call, more than half were very satisfied with the services, while one in five were somewhat unsatisfied. About 12 per cent said they were very dissatisfied with how quickly calls were transferred to police.

Just over 51 per cent of resident said they feel very safe in their neighborhoods however, of those who feel less safe, nearly half cited property crime as the main reason for their concerns; that’s about a 10 per cent increase over the same time last year.

Women (48 per cent) said they felt slightly less likely to feel very safe in their neighborhoods than men (55 per cent) but were no more likely to feel very unsafe than men.

All areas of the city reported similar levels of changes in their feelings of safety in their neighborhoods, with those living in south Lethbridge most likely to feel less safe and north residents most likely to feel safer in their areas this year as compared to 2017.

Overall, people generally feel safe when visiting downtown Lethbridge, but less safe than in their own neighborhoods. About 30 per cent of those visiting the downtown say they do not feel safe, however less than one in six people go downtown daily, and less than half visit downtown on a weekly basis.

Women feel less safe when visiting downtown than men, and only 15 per cent of women feel very safe visiting the downtown area, compared with 25 per cent of men.

Those responding to the survey also prioritize drug addiction issues as their most recommended areas for service improvements (35 per cent), with crime prevention programs a clear second priority at nearly 23 per cent.

More traffic enforcement is clearly the least prioritized of the services that LPS provides with just 11 per cent saying a great deal more needs to be done. Overall, less than one-third of those participating in the study said there should be more traffic enforcement. Men are more than twice as likely as women to want less traffic enforcement.

Nearly three-quarters of those polled would like Lethbridge Police to engage in more drug addiction issue policing activities. Women are most supportive of the initiative. Upper income residents (80 per cent) are even more supportive than middle or lower income residents, and those living in north Lethbridge support the initiatives more than those in south or west Lethbridge.

by Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

UPDATED: LPS Community Stakeholder and Public Opinion Survey results released

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