Owen Sound Police have a better idea of what their community thinks of them.
Police Chief Craig Ambrose says results of a community survey show some fairly positive perceptions of how police in the city are doing at their jobs.
“We had a great result on that,” says Ambrose who notes 370 people responded, a much better turnout than the last survey which saw almost no feedback.
Now, 75 per cent of those respondents say they're satisfied with crime prevention, 90 per cent of respondents feel police are quick to respond to calls, 85 per cent are satisfied with their perception of the number of crimes being solved, 80 per cent are satisfied with the police presence in cruisers, and 65 per cent were satisfied with traffic law enforcement.
85 per cent of respondents were happy with the Owen Sound Police Service's social media presence.
Chief Craig Ambrose has a plan he hopes will earn them more positive feedback.
When asked if an officer followed up with a person after they initially contacted police, 60 per cent of people said 'no,' and 40 per cent said 'yes.'
“One of the areas that concerned me a bit was people not necessarily getting feedback from us and not getting calls returned when they may or may not be expecting one,” says Ambrose. The survey says over half of those people who didn't get a follow up, were expecting to get one.
He says now, they'll look at how to do better, “What are the changes, what are the opportunities, what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses, and how do we then put that into our business plan moving forward, that we're mandated to create every three years and give it direction,” says Ambrose.
Ambrose explains, “Some people are expecting us to return their call or to give them an update on an investigation. I think part of it is internally, we have to reflect on the fact that what happened to the individual…it's probably the only time they're going to call the police that year, it may be the only time they call the police for five years or ten years…That's one of the areas I want to focus on, is improve our customer service.”
Other areas Ambrose wants to emphasize are communications, investigations, and relationships with their community partners, something he feels is important.
“We've made great strides, we implemented the mobile Mental Health Addiction Response Team last fall so that we have an officer working with mental health practitioner and those people respond to calls for service.”
Ambrose hopes the long term effects of that, are that people aren't going to the hospital unless they need to go to the hospital, “People aren't getting into crisis because they're meeting with them ahead of time when they're able to help the through their situation so they don't get to the point of crisis and calling the police. “
“Those are the types of programs and those are the types of things that we want to put in place,” he says.
Ambrose notes police also did a stakeholder session with their community partners like the Grey Bruce Heath Unit and Canadian Mental Health Association among others.