CRACKING DOWN ON DRUGS PRIORITY: SURVEY

Policing Priorities Have Changed In The Eyes Of Waterloo Region Residents.

Cracking down on drugs should be the service's number one focus,
according to the 2007 citizen survey results.

In 2003, cracking down on speeding and aggressive driving was the top
priority for residents. Now, citizens have ranked speeding and
aggressive driving as the third priority - in 2003, cracking down on
graffiti was number three.

Overall, the survey results are "encouraging", said Insp. Bryan
Larkin, executive officer to the chief, who presented a brief outline
of the survey results during Wednesday's regular Waterloo Regional
Police Services Board meeting. He also said there is always room for
improvement.

Addressing criminal gangs in the region made the number two spot on
the recent priority list. In 2003, residential break and enters took
that slot. Deterring drinking and driving is the fourth priority, an
area of crime that didn't even make the list in 2003. And the fourth
priority was addressing youth behaviour.

And finally, residential break and enters made the priority list at
spot number five, previously police visibility.

Chief Matt Torigian said crime prevention awareness initiatives have
contributed to a change in the public's priorities.

For several areas of the survey, the service asked questions to a
combination of 500 random citizens and 500 victims of crime in the
region. Some surveys were conducted by phone and some were mailed out
to individual houses.

Board member Patti Haskell raised concerns about how individuals who
take the survey could interpret the questions differently.

Larkin assured that in both the phone and mailed-out surveys,
explanations of questions were given accordingly.

Also discovered through the survey, 74 per cent of residents - a mix
of citizens and victims - are happy with officers' call response time.

After measuring survey participants' perceptions of crime in the
region, the service found that 67 per cent of residents think
regional crime rates have remained the same as in 2003. Nineteen per
cent think crime has increased, five per cent think there has been a
decrease, and nine per cent said they didn't know.

"We've seen some vast improvements and it really speaks to fear,"
said Larkin of the public's perception of crime.

He added that many residents are looking at crime in a broad light,
not just a personal sense.