The Fort Frances OPP’s “Policing for Results” telephone survey which started last month is moving full speed ahead, with volunteers likely to reach the quota of 375 by month’s end.
“We’re doing very well. There’s been 239 surveys completed so far,” Cst. Al MacDonald, community services officer with the Fort Frances OPP, said yesterday.
“There’s been very few refusals,” noted lead volunteer Murray Alexander. “We have had lots of calls with nobody home or getting an answering machine, but that’s par for the course.
“Overall, there’s been a positive response and some good comments,” he added.
Cst. MacDonald noted there’s no need for more volunteers to conduct the phone survey at this point.
The survey, which involves phone calls to randomly-selected homes and conducted anonymously as a scripted interview, usually takes 10-15 minutes.
It only is conducted weekdays from 7-9 p.m. and between noon and 8 p.m. on weekends.
The public is reminded that if they find the OPP detachment’s number on their call display to not call the station as this needlessly ties up phone lines there.
If an officer really wanted to get in touch with a resident, they would call them again, noted Cst. MacDonald.
The purpose of the survey is to assess the existing services and programs under the OPP here, and assist police in planning for the future of policing in the community.
The local OPP detachment won’t be privy to any of the results as they are being fed directly into a computer linked to OPP headquarters in Orillia.
But the detachment eventually will receive results, at which time they will be released to the media.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
