Perceptions of police performance in the territories, 2014

Released: 2016-06-13

In 2014, most residents of the Canadian territories had positive perceptions of police performance. However, the proportion of those in the territories who held that view was lower than the national average.

For example, 68% of Canadians believed in 2014 that the police were doing a good job of treating people fairly. This compared with 53% in Yukon, 56% in Nunavut and 58% in the Northwest Territories.

Residents of the territories were also less likely than those of the provinces to believe that police were doing a good job of ensuring the safety of citizens, enforcing the laws, promptly responding to calls and providing information on ways to prevent crime.

Within the territories, Aboriginal people were less likely than non-Aboriginal people to state that police were doing a good job. For example, a smaller proportion of Aboriginal people (42%) than non-Aboriginal people (60%) believed that police were doing a good job of enforcing the laws. There was a similar gap between Aboriginal (40%) and non-Aboriginal (59%) people when they were asked about the police promptly responding to calls.

Residents of the territories who reported being the victim of crime in the 12 months preceding the survey were also less likely to state that police were doing a good job. For example, 50% of victims believed that police were doing a good job of ensuring the safety of citizens compared with 66% of non-victims.

Products

The fact sheet "Perceptions of police performance in the territories, 2014" is now available online in Spotlight on Canadians: Results from the General Social Survey (Catalogue number89-652-X) from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.

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