2021 Insightrix Community Satisfaction Survey Results

For nearly 20 years, the Saskatoon Police Service has been measuring citizen’s levels of satisfaction with the SPS and community perceptions about crime and safety issues. The survey, conducted by an independent company since 2002, is conducted every three years.

This results of these surveys are an important indicator about policing priorities, and this year’s survey included questions to gauge public sentiment towards alternative service delivery models, downtown safety, and the body-worn camera pilot project.

The following are highlights of the 2021 survey results:

  • More than 84% percent of respondents perceive SPS officers to be hardworking, courteous, honest and fair.
  • Overall service satisfaction was 87% in 2021.
  • 86% of respondents felt safe in their neighbourhoods
  • 37% of respondents believed crime in their neighbourhood has increased in the last five years.
  • In terms of City-wide perceived problems and priorities, drug law enforcement and robbery continued to have the highest perceived priority (42% and 18% respectively).
  • 75% of respondents that had an interaction with SPS Communications reported good or excellent service.
  • 81% of respondents believed quality of service by SPS officers was good or excellent.
  • 92% of respondents would support an alternative response officer responding to their call for service if the call was non-criminal and non-threatening in nature
  • 94% of respondents felt it was valuable to partner police with a mental health professional for the purposes of responding to calls that are non-criminal and non-threatening in nature.
  • 71% of respondents found social disorder to be the most important issue in downtown. Specifically, respondents cited homelessness and panhandling as the most pressing issues related to social disorder in downtown.
  • 98% of respondents support the use of body-worn cameras by police generally.
  • 88% of respondents believe the use of body-worn cameras will increase public trust in police.

The 2021 survey was made via telephone to a sample of 526 respondents between October 7 and November 9, 2021. All respondents were Saskatoon residents and over the age of 18 and results were weighted by age, gender, Indigenous ancestry, and minority status to match the 2016 Statistics Canada Census.