Fewer Than Half of Canadians Say They Feel More Secure After Seeing Police Officer, Poll Shows

TORONTO (Sputnik) - Fewer than half of Canadians say they feel more secure after seeing a police officer, a new Angus Reid Institute poll revealed on Friday.

"Overall, fewer than half of the population says they feel more secure when they see a police officer. For one-in-five (17 percent) seeing an officer in public generates unease", the Angus Reid report on the poll results said.

Among 18 to 24-year-olds, the number of those who feel less secure in the presence of police outnumbers those who feel safer by 6 percent and is nearly identical to those between the ages of 25 and 34 who fell the same, the report said.

Among young people of indigenous and visible minority background, the percentage of those who feel less safe is even higher.

According to the poll, 66 percent of Canadians have had at least one direct encounter with police in the past five years.

Canadians generally fall into one of four types of attitudes toward law enforcement: those who vocally support the police, those who are silently supportive, those wary of law enforcement and those who wish to defund the police, according to the report. The share of each of the groups is almost equal.

The report also found that three-quarters of Canadians view police in their neighbourhood favourably.