What do the Rural Folks Think? Perceptions of Police Performance

Abstract

Abstract Several highly publicized incidents have drawn the public’s attention to the problem of rural crime in Canada, and this focus is appropriate given that rates of rural crime in most provinces are higher than in urban areas. This study reports the results of an examination of urban and rural residents’ perceptions of the police in Saskatchewan, Canada. Controlling for their socio-demographic characteristics, prior victimization, perceptions of crime, and contact with the police, the results of 1,791 phone surveys reveal that rural residents are less likely than their urban counterparts to indicate their police do a good job of enforcing the laws, promptly responding to calls for service, providing them with crime prevention information, ensuring their safety, or cooperating with them to address their concerns. We also found that both urban and rural residents who felt their communities were unsafe or neutral (neither safe nor unsafe) were less likely to indicate the police did a good job in all the seven categories of police performance examined in this research. Implications for rural policing practice and research are identified considering these findings.