Survey asks residents how safe we feel

Rotorua District Council’s annual ‘Perceptions of Safety Survey’ commenced this week.

The survey helps measure progress towards achieving the community goal of a safe and caring community.

Key Research Ltd is conducting the survey through telephone questionnaires, and will be calling Rotorua people over the next few weeks to get an idea of how safe they feel in the community.

The survey provides 400 randomly selected Rotorua residents with an opportunity to have their say on their perceptions of safety in Rotorua, on their awareness of safety initiatives, and on any actual experience of crime they may have had.

RDC community safety projects officer Juanita Conder says perceptions of safety have been improving overall since the first survey was undertaken in 2005, however for the first time mixed results were revealed in last year’s analysis.

Mrs Conder said that the 2010 survey will help determine how Rotorua people see the “safety landscape” at present.

“The results provide an important evaluation of the success of community safety projects, and give us an indication on which areas we need to improve on, and where more support is needed in the community.”

Results are expected to be available by June 2010.