While residents in the Town of Essex state they feel safe, many are not satisfied with the level of service provided by Ontario Provincial Police.
The survey was available to residents from the end of November until early January, and while only 210 residents filled out the survey - many were unhappy.
The results showed that residents perception of crime has increased in 2024. The overall satisfaction of OPP services was on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being very dissatisfied, and 5 being very satisfied. The average score was 2.94.
Based on the results, residents expressed dissatisfaction with interactions with OPP, frustrations with slow response times, and delays in assistance, and felt that officers arrived too late or that the issue wasn't addressed.
A prominent theme from the survey states that residents felt that police lacked visibility in neighbourhoods and public areas. Of 29 comments on visibility - 26 of them were negative.
Essex mayor Sherry Bondy says while only a small portion of residents filled out the survey, the results were alarming.
"Usually when things aren't going well the people that are not happy are the ones that usually fill out the survey. With that being said, I want to honour the comments that we got, and there's definitely some work to do with our OPP in terms of the feeling of the lack of police presence in areas of our municipalities."
She says she's seen improvements but is concerned by the lack of visibility by police.
"We do have more OPP actual physical people in the positions, they've hired more. So we are going to see an increase. I do hear a lot of positive comments, but yes, I want to look at how can we address the areas in the municipality where people aren't seeing enough police."
Bondy says unfortunately the increase in crime is a sign of the times, but there are ways residents can protect themselves as well.
"We all have a part to do, and we're working on messaging, we're doing community safety, policing walks throughout our areas. Residents are always remembered to lock it or lose it, keep their valuables locked, secure your home, lock your car."
This is the second time the Town has offered this survey to residents, with the last survey in 2020.
The survey results will be presented to Essex council this evening to be received for information.
The results have been sent to OPP, as well as to the Joint OPP Detachment Board to be reviewed.