Saskatoon Police advises public robo survey calls aren’t a scam

The Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) is operating a phone call survey and it’s not a scam.

The call comes from an unknown number, but the SPS assure people it’s real and not to hang up.

The SPS conduct these surveys every three years. It started in 2002.

Michele Arscott, Executive Director of Corporate Services with Saskatoon Police Service, said, feedback from the surveys helps the SPS build a plan to serve the city better.

“It’s important we have information from the public to inform our priority,” Arscott said. “Our focus is serving the public in the years to come.”

The phone call survey asks various questions including a list of agree or disagree questions about the SPS.

Other questions relate to public safety and how often an individual is worried about crime.

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The survey is endorsed by the Canadian Association Chiefs of Police and is conducted in several cities around Canada.

“Some of those questions will be similar to questions that are asked across other jurisdictions,” Arscott said. “Which will allow us to benchmark our old performance against what’s happening in other municipalities.”

SPS partnered with a Canadian Survey company named Advanis to complete these surveys.

The target is to receive feedback from around 475 to 500 people. But Arscott said it’s been difficult to get people to participate.

“We did put out some social media posts on the advice of the company to let people know the survey is not a scam,” she said. “We did indicate to the public that the survey will be administered online and communicated to citizens via phone call or text.”

Results from the survey won’t be available until February or March.

In total, it’ll cost SPS around $9,000 to complete this survey.

The City of Saskatoon also conducts a similar survey every two years.

— with files from 650CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk