How worried are Kelowna residents about crime? City-commissioned survey finds that it depends on your neighbourhood

A survey commissioned by the City of Kelowna to find out how residents feel about crime has been released.

The study, conducted by NRG Research Group, has been published ahead of a council meeting on April 15.

It found that most people in the city are overwhelmingly likely to feel safe in their neighbourhoods during the day (99%).

At night, that figure drops to 82%.

But when the numbers are broken down to reflect separate neighbourhoods, the responses vary.

In Central Kelowna – which includes downtown – only 69% of residents feel safe at night.

In North and East Kelowna, the figure is 96%.

For those living in Central Kelowna, 66% of people who felt unsafe said the cause was homeless people and drug users in the area.

The places residents said they considered less safe than others were downtown Kelowna (and specifically downtown core/Leon Avenue/Lawrence Avenue) and Rutland.

Across the city, the crime people said they were most worried about was having items stolen from their cars (48%).

Next was “open drug use in public spaces”, about which 40% said they were worried.

After that is drug trafficking (38%), burglary (31%), having a car stolen (30%) and being mugged (18%).

People living in Central Kelowna worried most about drug trafficking (53% said they worry about it some or most of the time).

Of those who have been a victim of crime in the last year, 53% said they reported it.

Over the last 12 months, 28% of people asked said they had been a victim of crime.

The survey was conducted between Feb. 27 and March 6, with 300 adults questioned by telephone.