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Traffic, speeding and schools key concerns in Facebook meeting

Police, public priorities align in first Oak Bay social media community meeting
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Oak Bay Police held their first social media community meeting on Friday afternoon. Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties was on the Oak Bay Local page answering residents questions in real-time.

By far, the concern that came up most frequently was traffic control and speeding, especially around schools.

“I see that as a good sign. In other communities where I’ve worked, while traffic is very important, it falls down on the list because of things like gang violence and drugs etc. So I think it is indicative of how wonderful of a commmunity we live in in Oak Bay,” says Bernoties. “With that said though, we do take it very seriously. We are listening to the public on that and we plan on creating some new traffic initiatives.”

Other questions asked were related to tent city, crime, and car accidents.

Bernoties was pleased with the questions and level of interaction during the online meeting and hopes to do more social media engagaments in the future.

The meeting was part of a broader initiative by the Oak Bay Police Department to get public input to guide their new strategic plan and priorities. The current strategic plan expires this December, so the police are in the process of crafting a new five-year plan for 2018-2022.

The public engagement for the strategic plan began with an online community survey earlier this year. The survey had 653 respondents. The results of the survey will be shared today in two town hall meetings: one at Monterey Rec. at 2 p.m., and one at Uplands School at 6 p.m.. It will also be another opportunity for the public to get questions answered or share concerns.

The Oak Bay Police will use the data from the survey and feedback from these meetings to make sure that their priorities are in line with the public’s. So far, the results are proving to be directly aligned.

Right now there are three prevailing themes and they are: community engagement/visibility, traffic, and property crime.

“What’s really nice, is I’ve been in some other communities where the police and the public don’t seem quite in sync on what’s important. But here, I can tell you that those would likely be the exact same priorities the Oak Bay Police would have selected,” says Bernoties. “So I think it demonstrates that there is good communication occurring and that people are aware of what’s going on in Oak Bay. They’ve identified what we would consider to be accurate priorities and now we’re pleased to develop a plan to address those issues.”

keri.coles@oakbaynews.com