Date: Wednesday, June 9th, 2021

Victoria, BC – We recently released the results of our 2021 VicPD Community Survey. The VicPD Community Survey is an opportunity for us to reach out to the communities of Victoria and Esquimalt to hear from them how we are doing.

Conducted in 2014, 2017 and 2020 before moving to an annual process for 2021, the VicPD Community Survey allows us to identify and track trends in the responses.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at how safe respondents feel in Downtown Victoria (for Victoria residents and businesses) and Esquimalt Plaza (for Esquimalt residents and businesses).

Methodology

The VicPD Community Survey is conducted by random, statistically significant sample, as part of our efforts to get as close as possible to an unbiased perspective. Previously, we took an in-depth look at our methodology and why we trust the results.

You can review the full results and methodology on our Open VicPD Community Survey Portal.

 

Do People feel safe in Downtown Victoria and Esquimalt Plaza?

Downtown areas are central hubs of commerce and creativity. They’re where people gather to share food, business and culture. A safe and vibrant downtown area helps communities feel safe and healthy. Within VicPD’s jurisdiction, downtown Victoria is truly the downtown for the south Island region while Esquimalt has its own central commerce and creative hub – the Esquimalt Plaza.

Each time we conduct the survey, we ask participants how safe they feel in Downtown Victoria and Esquimalt Plaza both during the day and at night. This measure tells us what people think and feel and may not mirror crime rates or changes in the crime severity index for these central hub areas. How safe people feel in these areas is a good measure of how well we are doing in our role as part of the team keeping these areas thriving.

A brief video presentation on these changes and the combined results is available here.

 

Do respondents feel safe in Downtown Victoria?

In previous VicPD Community Surveys respondents consistently report that they feel safer in our downtown areas during the day than they do at night. This trend continued in 2021 across both municipalities.

 

In Victoria we saw a 5% drop this year, to 77% of respondents, in those who reported feeling safe in Downtown Victoria during the day. In 2020, 35% of respondents reported feeling safe in Downtown Victoria at night. Those who reported feeling safe dropped an additional 6% this year, to 29% in 2021.

 

Do respondents feel safe in Esquimalt Plaza?

 

Respondents consistently report feeling safer in Esquimalt Plaza than they do in Downtown Victoria, both during the day and at night. There was a drop in respondents who reported feelings safe during the day, falling 4% in 2021 to 83%. Half of respondents feel safe in Esquimalt Plaza at night – a drop of 1% from 2020.

Our Key Insights

2021 VicPD Community Survey respondents reported feeling less safe in downtown Victoria and Esquimalt Plaza than they did last year. Survey to survey, respondents consistently feel safer during the day than they do at night. While half of respondents feel safe in Esquimalt Plaza at night, less than one third of respondents indicated feeling safe in downtown Victoria at night.

Up next | Do respondents feel VicPD is accountable?

Next week, we’ll look at another survey question asking if respondents feel VicPD officers are accountable. For the full survey details, including responses to all the questions, methodology and percentage of error visit: https://vicpd.ca/open-vicpd/community-survey/

 

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