Crime prevention strategy unveiled

Plans were announced at the Gallagher Centre on Monday for an initiative that will change the way crime is addressed in Yorkton.

The city will be a testing ground for the province's "Building Partnerships to Reduce Crime" platform using an inter-agency communication and collaboration strategy modeled after a system in Prince Albert.

Saskatchewan has the highest crime rate in the country, and Prince Albert is among the worst affected areas. About three years ago, the chief of the Prince Albert City Police sent a contingent of his top officers to Glasgow, Scotland to study a method of crime prevention that was having great success in that city, which faces many of the same problems as Prince Albert.

Police in both cities had observed that prior to being arrested for a serious crime, most young offenders had experienced repeated interventions by different agencies such as police, schools, and social services as the severity of their behavior escalated. But those agencies rarely communicated with one another; in fact, many representatives, including police officers, became "territorial" and refused to share information when asked.

The solution seemed obvious, and yet it had never been tried on a large scale: these agencies needed to be brought together to work towards shared goals.

The group's experience in Scotland became the basis for Prince Albert's Community Mobilization Partnership, which will in turn be the inspiration for the system being established in Yorkton.

Two structures form the pillars of the Prince Albert initiative. These are the Hub, a group of frontline workers from various agencies who meet regularly to identify and intervene with specific "people of elevated risk"; and the COR (Centre of Responsibility) a permanent centre to which representatives of the same agencies are posted on a fulltime basis to address long-term, big-picture issues through policy changes and resource mobilization.

Prince Albert City Police Sergeant Brent Kalinowski, who gave a lengthy presentation on the Community Mobilization Partnership at Monday afternoon's meeting in Yorkton, explained how a Hub intervention might proceed in his city. One of the group's partners-a police officer, social worker, addictions worker, or teacher, for example-will bring up an interaction they have had with a young person in the city. Each of the representatives shares what information they have on that individual-perhaps his or her attendance problems at school, involvement in petty crime, drug use, or experience with violence at home-enabling everyone at the table to observe the broader pattern of behavior and potentially the root cause of the issues. A delegation of the appropriate agencies visits the family at home, discusses the problems, and offers its services. Meanwhile, each agent has a better grasp of the complete picture for future interactions with the individual, and has contacts in other organizations for issues that fall outside of his or her scope.

Since the approach was implemented in February of 2011, the positive effects in Prince Albert have been measurable. Overall crime has dropped 14.7 percent. Emergency Room visits are down 10 percent. Police have seen a 5.7 percent reduction in call volumes: something unprecedented in a city where calls have historically increased by 5 to 6 percent every year.

It was "rejuvenating" for Sgt. Kalinowski, who previously dealt with a growing feeling that his work in solving crimes after the fact was futile.

"I can honestly say now I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot," he said. "I'm solving crimes before they happen. I'm helping people who are ahead of the crisis, before they're actually in a real bad crisis."

Yorkton could stand to see the same benefits. In 2010, the city's overall crime severity was the seventh highest in Canada. Prince Albert was fourth.

Invitations for Monday's information session went to potential partners across the city. Representatives from sectors including education, healthcare, housing, corrections, social services, policing, and municipal/provincial/aboriginal government were all present.

A core group of founding participants has been meeting since August and has set the next meeting for Jan. 10. Those organizations interested by what they learned on Monday are invited to attend and begin the process of developing a partnership against crime for Yorkton.

"This is just the start. We have a lot of building and a lot of work to do," said Lauretta Ritchie-McInnes, emcee of the presentation and constituency assistant to Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit.

If the initiative proves successful in Yorkton and other priority sites, including La Ronge and North Battleford, the provincial government hopes to expand it province-wide.