Pushing for community engagement instead of restrictive and costly measures is the best way for any community to crack down on crime. Yet the success of any program depends on how involved citizens of a particular neighbourhood want to be.
It is refreshing to hear several of the approximate 100 residents that attended the first meeting of the mayor’s task force on crime, safety and vandalism in Akinsdale say they have “met more of their neighbours in the last six months than in the last six years.” It is that waning trend of neighbours helping neighbours that is often lamented in the modern era. It’s not just about making friends — it’s about getting to know the people in your community and by default, forming a de facto intelligence network to address issues such as crime.
Statistics presented at the meeting show that the southeastern neighbourhoods, including Akinsdale, Grandin, Braeside, Woodlands, Forest Lawn, Pineview and Kingswood and the industrial area in Campbell Business Park have higher rates of certain crime than the community average. Braeside set the community precedent by going after the late-night parties in the river valley and succeeding in minimizing the fights, drug use and vandalism by talking to one another and to the authorities. Sturgeon Heights has since followed that example. Now it’s time for the rest of the city to join in.
And yet some of the ideas floated at the town hall meeting show we have a long way to go before we understand how to make criminals unwelcome in our neighbourhoods, specifically the idea of a youth curfew. Unfairly targeting young people who are out late is effectively laying the blame at their feet when there is little for which they can be blamed. As Insp. Warren Dosko of the RCMP detachment pointed out, it is adults who are responsible for the majority of crime, from selling drugs to vandalizing bus shelters, not our youth. More police patrols would be nice too, but so would more police officers. The need is great and the money simply isn’t there.
Groups such as Neighbourhood Watch and Citizen’s Patrol are one way individuals can become more engaged with their community by taking the role of patrolling into their own hands. But the city last year provided one way in which communities can come together. Through Family and Community Support Services, the RCMP, Neighbourhood Watch and Citizen’s Patrol, any neighbourhood can hold a block party with the costs offset by the above groups. At Saturday’s Volunteer Citizen of the Year awards ceremony, Mayor Nolan Crouse wondered aloud how great it would be if every block held such a party. To date six have been scheduled for June with more applications pending.
Banding together as neighbourhoods strengthens the community as a whole. Making it clear that criminal activity will not be tolerated puts added pressure on those who would break the law to live elsewhere. It is not vigilantism we need but the fortitude to make the call to the authorities when we see suspicious or outright illegal activity. Crime thrives on silence, fear and isolation. Let’s speak up together.
