Here are some highlights from Herb Sutton’s monthly community safety monitoring report for October, presented at Oct. 23rd’s council meeting in North Battleford:
Citizens on Patrol was a topic of discussion. One initiative the organization is involved in that Sutton discussed at the meeting was the Security Camera Registry initiative. This is being done as part of a partnership along with the city, the CSOs and RCMP.
The intent is to use information from businesses and residents who volunteer to create an interactive map of security cameras in the city, which would then be used in investigations.
Citizens on Patrol volunteers would be responsible for putting the information in. Sutton urged residents and businesses to consider it, calling it a proactive measure, and said more information was available at the city’s website.
Work continues to recruit new members to Citizens on Patrol. Sutton said they have doubled their numbers and he encourages even more residents to join up.
The work of Crime Free Multi-Housing was also reported. They are hosting and partnering with the Saskatchewan Landlords Association on a luncheon Nov. 17 on the topic Cannabis: What You Need to Know.
The event will be at the Blend. Sutton noted that with the coming legalization of marijuana, the issue is of interest to people involved with rental properties. He also called it a proactive way to get involved in community safety.
The third area was the SAGE group – Safety, Acceptance, Guidance, Empowerment. Sutton provided some further details on the coalition funding obtained recently by the organization from Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development Canada.
This will go towards four levels of government – federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations – coming together to work on safety issues. Some of the money will go towards hiring a consultant to lead this work, and the person being hired is someone with experience working with the four levels of government in the oilsands in Alberta. Sutton believes she will “bring great expertise and background to this work.”
In his remarks, Councillor Kent Lindgren encouraged the SAGE efforts to bring together the various levels of government, saying this was something “lots of people talk about but it’s very rarely done.”
SAGE were also working on the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Collaborative Approach, a model developed by Public Safety Canada designed to follow-up on earlier efforts on developing community safety plans. A two-day event is planned to bring key stakeholders and government agencies together to review and implement their community safety plan.
Sutton also gave an update on the Eyes that Care campaign that is currently under way. As part of the campaign, motion-activation security lights are being provided to those who sign up.
A poster is being put out and will be made available to residents with suggestions on how to avoid preventable crimes.
A couple of open houses are planned to provide more information on the campaign. One is Nov. 7 at Connaught School and the other is Nov. 15 at John Paul II. Both run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
There has been a good response to this already: Sutton noted at least 70 people signed up for the program at the beef-on-a-bun luncheon at the fire hall during Fire Prevention Week. He called it an encouraging and positive response.
Finally, Sutton spoke of the efforts of the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design committee on formalized neighbourhoods. A presentation by the city planner of the interim report on the topic was on the agenda later on at the council meeting.
Sutton voiced his support for the initiative. “This work is at the heart of getting the residents involved in community safety as well,” said Sutton. “This is a major area of focus for us.”
He noted the safest communities in the world are those where people know, care for and look out for each other. By formalizing neighbourhoods and working at that smaller level, “it’s much easier to actually realize that,” said Sutton.
