Public confidence in Edmonton police drops in 2021, report shows
City councillor says police commission needs to step up in its oversight role
The Edmonton Police Commission says more work is needed to regain the public's trust in the Edmonton police, representatives said during a city council meeting Tuesday.
John McDougall, chair of the commission, presented highlights from the police service's 2021 annual report.
"Edmontonians are feeling less safe and their confidence in the police has decreased," he said.
McDougall said the dip in public confidence goes along with the increase in drug poisonings and homelessness in the city.
"There's work to be done in this area."
McDougall's comments about public confidence come in part from a citizen perception survey contained in the report.
Survey respondents who said their confidence in police was excellent or good dropped to 57 per cent in 2021 from 64 per cent in 2020.
Those saying their confidence in police was poor or very poor increased to 19 per cent from 10 per cent in the same timeframe.
One way to improve the relationship with the public, McDougall said, is the police's new four-year strategic plan includes three new advisory councils: an Indigenous council, a sexual orientation, gender identity and expression council and a chief's community council, to help police shape policies.
Not surprised
Coun. Erin Rutherford said she's not surprised that public confidence has fallen.
"I wouldn't be surprised if that trend continues," Rutherford told reporters said after the meeting.
Rutherford noted that the report shows use-of-force occurrences were up 19 per cent from 2,674 in 2020 to 3,179 in 2021.
While the report cites "COVID-19 pandemic influence and socio-political events" as a reason for the increase, Rutherford said the commission is responsible for addressing this with the police.
"As a commission, what are you doing with that, what are you doing with that information?" Rutherford said in an interview. "They didn't really give me confidence in how they're using their oversight role, to hold the EPS accountable."
Is downtown safer?
The report shows the violent crime rate is down six per cent between 2018 and 2020.
The largest contributing factor to Edmonton's violent Crime Severity Index (CSI) is robbery. There's been a 30 per cent increase in firearms-related calls, McDougall noted.
But the number of violent criminal incidents within downtown Edmonton increased between 2018-2021, the report says.
In the meeting, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi asked whether the commission has or will direct the police to allocate more resources to the downtown.
"This is something that I always hear from the business community that they don't see enough police officers in the downtown," he said.
McDougall said the commission and police service create strategic goals to align with trends.
"There was some talk of increasing — of whether there was a need to increase — officers in the downtown core, but I think that starts to tread into budgetary issues."
McDougall said he wouldn't answer questions related to budget items, which council will start to scrutinize Dec. 1.
Coun. Keren Tang was the one who requested the annual report be presented to council. She said it was important to discuss, given that policing is the largest item in the city's operating budget.
"I think this annual report is quite a key document to understand what we're getting for the money," Tang said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
