From The City of Red Deer

Online survey on crime and community safety

Starting today, citizens can go online to share their ideas for improving community safety and reducing crime with The City of Red Deer.

In November, The City hosted six in-person public meetings on community safety.  Approximately 200 people attended and shared their top concerns related to crime and community safety, as well as actions that can be taken that will have an immediate to short-term impact on improving the issues. From the in-person meetings, the top five issues identified were: property crime, justice and enforcement, addictions and substance abuse, personal and community safety, and economic / business impact.

These top issues are included in the online survey, and participants will be asked to identify actions that The City of Red Deer, citizens, business, police and other orders of government (including provincial and federal) can take to tackle these concerns.

“Crime and community safety is our number one priority and by launching online engagement, we can hear from as many people as possible as not everyone was able to attend the in-person sessions,” said City Manager Allan Seabrooke. “Through this engagement we are partnering with the public to determine actions we can each take that will have a direct and immediate impact on improving the community safety issues we are currently experiencing.”

Red Deer, like many other communities across the province and the nation, currently faces drug, health and economic challenges that are affecting the city and the people who live here. While The City of Red Deer has a number of crime reduction and community safety related programs, initiatives and services already underway, there is always room for improvement, and The City wants to hear from citizens on what else we can collectively do.

“The online survey is about prioritizing community safety. Over the last year, City Council and The City of Red Deer, have worked to make decisions that acknowledge the social, economic and community safety challenges we face because of the economic, health and drug crisis in our province and western Canada. We know there is more to be done, and we need our community’s feedback with solutions that can be implemented in the short term so that everyone in our community feels safe in their home, neighbourhood and our city,” said Mayor Tara Veer.

To participate in the online survey and learn more about crime reduction and community safety related work, visit www.reddeer.ca/bettertogether.  The online engagement will remain open to the public until December 31, 2019.