Police survey off to ‘good start’

The local OPP’s “Policing for Results” phone survey so far has found residents to be helpful in giving input as to how well police are serving the community, Sgt. Steve Shouldice said Friday morning.
“[Thursday] night was the second night conducting the survey. We’re up to 28 surveys completed,” he noted. “We have to complete 370, but we’re off to a good start.
“We’re getting a good response from the people. They understand what it’s all about when they get the call, saying, ‘Oh yeah, I read about this in the paper,’” Sgt. Shouldice added.
While there currently are 13 volunteers trained to conduct the survey, more are welcome to get involved as the aim is to complete the required number of surveys by mid-November.
Those interested in volunteering can call Sgt. Shouldice at 274-3322.
Sgt. Shouldice noted the job merely consists of making randomly-chosen phone calls and conducting an anonymous, scripted interview, which usually takes 10-15 minutes.
He also said the survey cannot be conducted from a volunteer’s home but must be done from the OPP detachment here. This involves a time commitment of about two hours on a given weekday and three hours on the weekend.
The survey is only conducted from 7-9 p.m. on weekdays and between noon and 8 p.m. on weekends, he noted.
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.