RCMP Pleased with Community Feedback

The Cold Lake RCMP Detachment has tallied the results from the community feedback survey and are pleased with the amount of participation from residents. S/Sgt. Jeremie Landry says the high number of responses shows the detachment how involved people are with their community.

“I was pleasantly surprised that we had that many people who took the time to become involved in Policing Priorities initiative; which I think should have community involvement,” explains S/Sgt Landry. The detachment uses the results to form their Policing Priorities, which are set annually for April 1st. Information gathered is very important. The survey, which was available online and hard copy, was open from mid-January to March 1st and had 920 responses. Of the responses 255 were from the MD of Bonnyville, 19 from Cold Lake First Nations, 22 from Elizabeth Settlement and 622 from the city of Cold Lake (two respondents did not disclose their location).

Top 3 Policing Priorities as Surveyed: 

1. Impaired Driving:  581 respondents at 63.15%
2. Major Property Crime B&E, Motor Vehicle & Theft over $5,000: 556 respondents at 60.43%
3. Illegal Drug, trafficking & possession: 477 respondents at 51.85%

Other Policing Priorities:

• Minor Property Crime
• Family Violence
• Youth Engagement
• Traffic Enforcement
• Community Engagement

From the survey, talking with the community, the past year’s stats & cases, and crime trends the police will draft their Policing Priorities for 2016-17. “The whole purpose to this survey is prior to us deciding what our priorities are going to be, we wanted to get that input from the public. In the next week to ten days, I will be thoroughly reviewing the survey, as well as the comments from the general public. As well as, compiling that with information, suggestions, and concerns I’ve received from the four councils in our area, the MD, the City, Cold Lake First Nations, and Elizabeth Settlement. Then coming up with four or five priorities to focus on and coming up with initiatives on how we are going to achieve those priorities.”

The top priorities displayed from the survey line up with what the detachment has been focusing on in 2015 and early 2016, says S/Sgt Landry, “they’re almost directly in line with our priorities, right now. One of our priorities is general traffic enforcement, where impaired driving is our number one focus. We also have crime reduction priority, that focuses specifically on illegal drug. Whether that’s trafficking or possession, as well as prolific offenders in our community who are committing a lot of property crimes in our community. We also have a youth component, where we deliver youth education and our healthier aboriginal communities priority.”

The survey also had a wide range of age groups, as well as, people from different fields of work, “depending on your type of employment or your background, your priorities may be different from someone else. So if we can get a good cross-section of opinions going forward, then we can see whether or not they are lining up.”

Females were the top respondents with 64 percent, males accounted for 33 percent and nearly 2 percent were transgender (1.6 percent chose not to disclose their gender). People aged 35-54 accounted for 40 percent of the respondents, 25-34 years old 29.69 percent, 18-24 years old 14.63 percent, 55 and older 12.01 percent and 17 and younger 2.15 percent.