Hamilton residents, safety survey underline downtown as most unsafe

A community safety survey by a team from Laurier University sheds some light on how unsafe some Hamiltonians feel in the city.

The survey of more than 1,200 residents was paid for by Hamilton police, and released to the public early last month.

According to the survey, the area that includes downtown and the city’s North End is considered by many to be the most dangerous area of the city, while communities like Dundas and Ancaster are typically the safest.

The survey was made up of 1,245 Hamilton residents.

52 per cent of the respondents said they believe that the police are doing a good job to keep the community safe.

Diving more into the numbers, more than 93 per cent of people polled felt safe going outside during the day.

76 per cent agreed it was safe for their children to play outside in their neighbourhood, but 68 per cent worried about vehicle theft, 56 per cent were concerned about vandalism, and 55 per cent feared home break-ins.

“There’s a few troubling numbers in there,” said Chief Frank Bergen with Hamilton Police Services. “When you’re getting numbers in the low 50 per cent that are satisfied with what police are doing — What I hear at town halls is ‘why don’t I see police?’ We have to talk about emerging crime trends in our city.”

Bergen said crime severity is actually trending down.

“You have to put these things into perspective,” said Bergen. “Coming out of 2024, we responded to 60 shootings in our city. Right now, knock on wood, we’ve had 31 shootings. Those numbers are drastically different.”

He said two recent fatal shootings also play into the optics of violence in Hamilton.

“When we had Harsimrat murdered on Upper James, Belinda on King and James — those are significant impacts in our city and impact the perception of safety conversely to the amount of things that actually occur,” said Bergen.

Some survey respondents and people who spoke with CHCH News, said it isn’t really fair to lump the whole city together, but they all agreed that there is one major problem spot and it’s downtown.

Bergen says the drug problem is something police are well aware of.

“We have asked for a full-time prosecutor for simple possession drug cases,” said Bergen. “They’re not proceeding in our courts, and that is unacceptable in a community that has 46 per cent higher than the provincial average in opioid deaths and opioid use.”

While the survey only sampled from less than 1,300 people, the chief is confident that the information gathered can be used to help shape how the city is policed going forward.

READ MORE: Hamilton police release survey report measuring local views on safety