Policing is a community effort.
That’s what Campbell River RCMP spokesman, Const. Maury Tyre, is saying in response to a nationwide poll that shows confidence in the police has dropped with a perceived rise in crime.
READ MORE: Confidence in police drops as half of Canadians say crime is rising: poll
The biennial series by the Angus Reid Institute is aimed to gauge Canadians’ experiences and opinions of the justice system.
Though crime rates in Canada dropped steadily from 1991 to 2014, the series finds public perceptions of crime is on the rise.
It says half of Canadians (48 percent) now say that crime has increased in their community over the past five years, up from 42 percent in 2018 and 30 percent in 2014.
The institute also says that “while at least half of Canadians still have confidence in each organization, the proportion (says) this dropped in 2018 and again in this latest data.”
A total of 61 percent of B.C. respondents have confidence in the RCMP on a national level, while 63 percent feel confident in their local RCMP detachment.
Tyre said it’s “unfortunate if people feel that way.”
“Definitely if they do have issues, we’d love for them to come and talk to us at the local detachment,” he added.
When looking at the poll, Tyre said B.C.’s sample size was 223 people.
“It’s hard to know even if anyone in Campbell River was actually even spoken to,” he said.
And when it comes to municipal policing, Tyre said the public are the eyes and ears of the RCMP.
“A lot of times, and perhaps this comes from people watching TV and crime dramas etc., there is a hope that the police can do their jobs and convict criminals without the assistance of the public,” he said. “And the reality is, in order to get through the court systems, the police need witnesses who are willing to come forward.”
He said in many cases, people are “understandably” hesitant to get involved.
“Everybody has their reasons, but when it comes down to it when we look at crime strategies, really it is the police and the communities working together that can typically tackle crime on a regular basis,” Tyre said.
The Campbell River RCMP saw close to 17,000 calls for service in 2019.
That’s up 11 percent from 2018, and a seven percent jump compared to the five-year average.
“That’s quite busy,” Tyre said. “Of course, the busier we are, that’s possibly why people question, ‘Why aren’t they specifically patrolling my neighbourhood, or why can’t people be picked up?’ Those are all good questions that people have,” Tyre said.
“Of course, when people are hearing things in the news and seeing things in press releases, whether they’ve been victims of crime or not, it’s going to make them feel a little less comfortable.”
Maury added that in a 2019 Citizens satisfaction survey of Campbell River conducted by Discovery Research, 90 percent of residents were satisfied with policing on varying levels.
All told, 48 of respondents said they were “somewhat satisfied” with 42 percent being “very satisfied.”
The sample size in the report was based on approximately 500 surveys being completed.
In regards to community concerns,Tyre said: “it showed that concerns were regarding drug use and crime in the downtown core, which the local detachment spends a great deal of focus on.”
In terms of people’s faith in the police, Tyre believes a lot of that wraps into not only the RCMP, but the court, probation, and parole systems.
“So it’s hard to truly determine for people if they’re not in the system, which part of the system is specifically letting them down,” he said.
Tyre said in the grand scheme of things, the Campbell River RCMP is a community-based detachment and as such, is trying to constantly engage with communities.
“It’s not just a specific response to the crime, or response to the crime straight to court, it’s kind of the whole package when we deal with policing, where we are looking at community outreach, we’re looking at preventative systems that we can try to help the community implement, and the response to calls, ” Tyre said.
