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Municipal Issues In BC: Security And Policing

Municipal Issues In BC: Security And Policing

Education (18%), Transportation (17%), Crime (16%) And Health Care (15%) Top Municipal Issues Four-In-Ten (44%) BC Residents Feeling Less Secure In Local Community But, Eight-In-Ten Satisfied With Police Performance At Enforcing Laws (79%) And Preventing Crime (76%)

10.19.02

Vancouver, BC - A new Ipsos-Reid/Vancouver Sun poll reveals that no single issue is currently dominating the local public agenda as we move closer to November 16th municipal elections across British Columbia. The public is concerned about a wide variety of issues including two traditional municipal issues - transportation (17%) and crime (16%) - and two issues more normally associated with provincial elections - education (18%) and health care (15%).

The poll also finds four-in-ten (44%) British Columbians feeling less secure in their community than they did five years ago. Three-in-ten (31%) residents now feel more secure than they did five years ago. Despite this decline in personal security, eight-in-ten British Columbians say they are satisfied with the job their local police is doing in terms of enforcing the laws (79%) and having programs and resources in place to prevent crime (76%).

These are the findings of a BC Ipsos-Reid poll conducted between October 7th and 13th, 2002 among a representative cross-section of 800 British Columbian adults. These data are statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional, age and sex composition reflects that of the actual BC population according to 1996 Census data. With a provincial sample of 800, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results are within 1773.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult BC population been polled. The margin of error will be larger for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

Education (18%), Transportation (17%), Crime (16%) and Health Care (15%) Top Municipal Issues

The four main local issues British Columbians would like to see debated in the municipal campaign are education (18% total mentions), transportation (17%), crime (16%) and health care (15%). Other issues BC residents would like to see debated in the municipal campaign include the economy (11% total mentions), and taxation (11%).

Four-in-Ten (44%) BC Residents Feeling Less Secure in Local Community

More than four-in-ten (44%) British Columbians say they feel less secure about their own personal safety in their community than 5 years ago, including 16 percent who feel "a lot less" secure. Three-in-ten (31%) feel "a lot" (8%) or "somewhat" more (23%) secure than 5 years ago. One-in-four (23%) BC residents says they feel no more or less secure than 5 years ago.

Younger residents are feeling the best about their security compared to 5 years ago. Among British Columbians aged 18 to 34 years, 44 percent say they feel more secure compared to 36 percent who feel less secure. In contrast, British Columbians aged 35+ years are nearly twice as likely to feel less secure (48%) than more secure (25%).

But, Eight-in-Ten Satisfied with Police Performance at Enforcing Laws (79%) and Preventing Crime (76%)

Despite growing concerns with personal security, most British Columbians express satisfaction with the job their local police is doing in terms of crime prevention and enforcing the law in their community. Specifically, close to eight-in-ten (79%) British Columbians say they are "very" (24%) or "somewhat" satisfied (55%) with the job their local police are doing in terms of enforcing the laws in their community. In all, only 20 percent are dissatisfied with their performance in this area.

A similar percentage of BC residents (76%) say they are "very" (23%) or "somewhat" satisfied (54%) with the job their local police are doing in terms of having programs and resources in place to prevent crime in their community. Again, relatively few (21%) say they are dissatisfied with crime prevention programs and resources in their area.

Kyle Braid