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With a spike in the number of homicides this year, a new poll indicates Edmontonians believe violent crime should be the police department’s No. 1 priority.

Of the 830 residents surveyed in the Mainstreet Research poll, conducted on behalf of Postmedia News, nearly a quarter said curbing violent crime should be at the top of the list for police, followed close behind by the sex trade and child exploitation (21 per cent). Drugs and property crimes were tied for third place, each with 15 per cent of respondents ranking those as the most important issues.

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“In recent years, Edmonton has received some unwanted attention for having a steady crime rate while other major cities rates fell up to 2014. Since 2015, rates have increased … some attribute (that) to the downturn in the economy. These realities are mirrored by the perceptions of a majority of Edmontonians,” Mainstreet Research president Quito Maggi said in a news release.

Forty-three per cent of respondents said they believe crime is increasing, while 37 per cent said they think it’s staying the same. Only 11 per cent of people said they thought crime is decreasing.

Those numbers differ from a poll of 1,367 people the Edmonton Police Service commissioned in February that indicated more than three-quarters of respondents felt Edmonton had the same amount or less crime than other Canadian cities. Less than a quarter said they thought there was more crime.