Calgary police seen as less competent, fair and ethical in 2016 citizen survey
Calgarians 'trending downward in their confidence' in police service, although overall ratings still strong
Calgarians' trust in the competence, fairness and ethical behaviour of their police officers has declined in 2016, according to an annual survey carried out by the Calgary Police Commission.
"Citizens of Calgary are trending downward in their confidence of the Calgary Police Service, and we need to address that concern," said commission vice-chair Brian Thiessen.
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Statistically significantly declines were observed in numerous measures included in this year's survey, as compared to the 2015 results.
When asked if officers are competent in their duties, 43 per cent of survey respondents strongly agreed. That's down from 48 per cent last year.
Similarly, when asked if Calgary police respond in a fair way when dealing with all segments of the community, 34 per cent strongly agreed, down from 39 per cent last year.
And when asked about police characteristics, 39 per cent of survey respondents strongly agreed that "officers are ethical," down from 45 per cent the year before.
Thiessen noted that Calgarians still expressed strong confidence in the police service, as a whole, with 45 per cent saying they are "very confident" and 50 per cent saying "somewhat confident."
The 17-minute telephone survey was conducted with a randomly selected sample of 1,000 Calgary adults between June 28 and Aug. 28 of this year, one which has seen numerous police shootings and high-profile cases of controversial police behaviour caught on video.
The tail end of the survey period included the Aug. 22 announcement that the Calgary officer who fatally shot Anthony Heffernan in 2015 wouldn't be criminally charged, despite some evidence of wrongdoing.
More recently, it was revealed on Oct. 5 that three officers involved in a violent arrest this summer will face criminal charges for allegedly beating up a man who was in handcuffs and, in two of those officers' cases, allegedly lying in their reports of the incident.
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Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin said he watches the results of the annual survey closely and takes the results seriously.
He acknowledged "we are dealing with some challenging times right now" and said he does plan to make changes within the service to address issues relating to public confidence, but not in a knee-jerk fashion.
"Moving culture in an organization is not an overnight thing," Chaffin said. "You have to be careful. You have to know what you're fixing before you run around trying to fix things."
On the whole, the chief said Calgary remains well served by its police service.
"It's easy to hang on to some of the negative stories, but big-picture-wise, Calgary still is a very vibrant, safe place to live."