Many Islanders unsatisfied with how police deal with some crimes, report suggests

The results of public survey about policing on P.E.I. have been released, and they highlight Islanders' concerns over public drug use and ways police forces can adapt to community needs.

Some of the main takeaways from the report, Community Perceptions of P.E.I. Police Services, are that 62 per cent of those surveyed are mostly trusting of the police, while 61 per cent view them as professional.

Some concerns were also evident, with 45 per cent saying they were dissatisfied with how police handle impaired and dangerous driving.

About 41 per cent said they weren't satisfied with how authorities deal with drug trafficking, while theft and property crimes was next on the list, with 37 per cent of Islanders unsatisfied with how those offences are treated.

WATCH | Survey says Islanders trust the police in P.E.I., but think crime is on the rise:

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The province wanted to know Islanders’ thoughts on policing, and the results of a survey show two-thirds trust police. But, as CBC’s Stacey Janzer found out, many believe crime has gotten worse over the past year.

P.E.I.'s Department of Justice and Public Safety posted the survey online for four weeks last summer. Fewer than 1,000 people responded. 

P.E.I. RCMP Insp. Shaun Coady told CBC News that the province's traffic services unit has been working to curb impaired and dangerous driving cases. 

"Their numbers have climbed significantly over the last few years with more than 21,000 interactions with motorists last year," he said. "We report on our impaired driving stats and they have been continuing to be quite high."

A majority of Islanders surveyed, 87 per cent, said they were concerned about crime on P.E.I., and 72 per cent said they felt crime has gotten worse in the past year.

Community engagement 

Other concerns from the survey centred on community engagement. Twenty-nine per cent said they don't feel as if police engage enough with youth, while about a quarter said people from diverse communities and seniors are underserved.

Coady said the RCMP has been reaching out to those communities through a number of efforts. 

"We have a dedicated RCMP member working in Montague Regional High School engaging with the youth in that community," he said.

"We have seen significant results from that engagement, so obviously we strive to engage with our population, and whether it's seniors or youth, we drive those activities at the local detachment level."

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Coady said the agency has recently been hosting awareness campaigns targeted at seniors to help spread awareness of scams. 

"We've done a number of outreach opportunities, fraud talks for example, cyber safety, communications, we've done social media activities to try to raise awareness about some of those types of incidents," he said.

"Grandparent schemes, those sorts of things, we've really tried to cater to those and ensure that we're proactively addressing those needs."

Brody Connolly, director of P.E.I. Public Safety, said this survey will help the province develop strategies for policing.

"The big thing about it is it just puts us in a position to identify gaps," he said.

"I think we have a good pulse on where we are policing-wise and [with] crime prevention, but without that... extra public input I think we need that to really do a fulsome job as far as identifying what the issues are."