Two more community safety audits will be conducted in a pair of yet-to-be determined neighbourhoods. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

safety audit

New round of neighbourhood safety audits coming to Nanaimo

Jan 15, 2022 | 9:55 AM

NANAIMO —First of its kind safety audits introduced last year are being repeated to include new areas of the city to gauge how safe people feel in their local neighbourhood.

Christy Wood, the City’s community policing coordinator, confirmed two new parts of the city will be selected to take part in the audit, featuring a survey and a report for city councillors.

Wood said two new neighbourhoods will be profiled, down from the six last year.

“We won’t be doing as as we did last year because a lot of the work that we’re also doing right now is that we’re implementing a lot of the crime prevention recommendations in the past neighhourhood safety audit,” Wood said, who noted it has not been determined which neighbourhoods will be profiled this year.

Last year’s audit involving nearly 750 people in six areas of Nanaimo found most people weren’t satisfied with safety in their local areas.

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Information from the data collecting mission is used in conjunction with crime statistics over the previous five years to help address safety challenges in various neighbourhoods in the future.

Wood said the high level of interest in last year’s audit showed a lot of people want play a progressive role in positive changes.

“What that really told me is that people are attached to their neighbourhood, they really care and they wanted to identify any of the challenges that they’re facing.”

Once again criminology students from VIU will assist in this year’s audit, which Wood said will be done over the next six months.

In addition to the safety audit effort which debuted last year, Nanaimo Community Policing is involved with numerous crime prevention and safety initiatives.

People interested in volunteering with Nanaimo Community Policing can

More information is available at the organization’s website by clicking here.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes