By acting Victoria police chief Del Manak
The month of May is going to be a busy but exciting time at VicPD as we sit down with citizens and business leaders in Victoria and Esquimalt to report back on what we heard in our 2017 VicPD Community and Business Survey project.
On behalf of the department and the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board, I am personally inviting you to join us for these conversations.
Over the last several months, my team has been working to gather feedback from the Community and Business Survey Project.
VicPD volunteers and reserves hand-delivered survey packages to more than 1,700 randomly selected residences and businesses across Esquimalt and Victoria. Since that time, my staff has worked to process those results. Now, we’re ready to report back to our community aboutwhat we heard while having a focused discussion on what to do next.
Our last community and business surveys were conducted in 2014. The feedback gathered at that time was used to help form the discussion that lead to the creation of our strategic plan.
With this survey, we’ll be able to see how your needs have changed and what opportunities now exist to help continue to put our plan into practice in each of the communities we serve.
We’re hosting four feedback sessions in which members of our senior command team and our police board will sit down to discuss the findings of the survey, and to gather input for how best to move forward. Our goal is to ensure that you, the citizens of Victoria and Esquimalt, are receiving the policing service that you expect in a way that is financially sustainable. One of these sessions is focused on hearing input from our business community. The other three are focused on our wider residential community. These sessions are open for all to attend.
The community sessions are:
· Thursday, May 18 at 7 p.m. at Esquimalt Municipal Hall
· Wednesday, May 24 at 7 p.m. at the Burnside/Gorge Community Centre
· Wednesday, May 31 at 7 p.m. at the James Bay New Horizons Centre
The business-focused session is Tuesday, June 6 at 8 a.m. at the Union Club.
We’ll share the results of all the sessions once they’ve been completed. I am hoping that we hear from you in these sessions. We need your input to ensure we’re meeting your needs in the years ahead.
To sign up for a session or for more information on our Community and Business Survey project, including a chance to see all our data, visit vicpd.ca/survey.