A 2025 survey presented to the Thunder Bay Police Services Board on Tuesday shows women’s perceived sense of safety dropped by nine percentage points last year, falling from 56% to 47%.

TBPS Chief Darcy Fleury says initiatives aimed at increasing police visibility and amplifying public concerns are intended to help improve those numbers.

“We just started the [Project Support] program,” Fleury said. “A large part of that is intended to create visibility and have people know we’re there.”

Project Support was launched in April 2026 as an initiative to address public safety in the city’s downtown cores. The project is led by the police’s Community Oriented Response and Engagement (CORE) Unit.

According to a TBPS press release, Project Support intends to:

• Prioritize service connections for people experiencing addiction, mental health challenges, or housing instability 
• Improve public safety and restore order in shared public spaces 
• Reduce visible disorder and open drug use in downtown cores 
• Strengthen collaboration with social service and community partners 
• Ensure consistent, lawful, and proportionate enforcement

“I think we’ve got some really good results after the first month,” Fleury said. “This is an initiative that we took from listening to the people. When we had our town halls, we had our camp with the chiefs, the message has been very, very strong that they wanted to see more of a presence and more visibility.”

The survey showed that more police presence is the leading action residents feel would help keep their community safe. Fleury identified the recurring Coffee with Cops cafe chat as a way for community members to get to know police and voice their concerns.

“We’ve been saying it for years. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. If we don’t know that we’re not doing something right, then we can’t fix it,” Fleury said.

The next Coffee with Cops event will be held at The Habit Coffee & Bakeshop Friday morning from 10:30 to noon.

Fleury suggested that this year’s survey should include more follow up questions to identify the root cause of safety concerns.

“I don’t think we’ve delved into why [the surveyed] feel that way,” he said. “These surveys are meant to be tools for us. Okay, we have an area of concern that’s been identified, but what are the root causes of it? So we’ll follow up on that for sure.”

As for the positives from the survey, Fleury said he was happy to hear that 84% of residents are willing to contact police when necessary. He also highlighted the fact that 85% of respondents said the TBPS treated them respectfully when they called.

“We’ve done well to build that trust over the years,” he said. “I think we’re seeing the needle move in the right direction as far as people seeing that you can come to the police and have your concerns heard. We’re changing the perception that the police service is something you should be cautious about.”

You can view the full survey report here: