Safety and Crime Prevention is another one of the R-C Renfrew Community Vision highlights. This is also an issue that is of great importance to me. I am a student and work late hours; I have to rely on public transportation to travel to and from school and work. I often have to walk home at night after dark from Joyce SkyTrain Station and I don’t feel particularly safe. I wanted to look at the initiatives being undertaken by the R-C Vision to address concerns such as mine.
After doing a little research I discovered that Renfrew-Collingwood’s overall crime rate is slightly higher than that of most other local areas in the city. In 1998, the rate of property crimes in Renfrew-Collingwood was around the middle when compared to the city’s other local areas. At 13 per thousand people, Renfrew-Collingwood’s rate of crimes against people (‘violent crimes’) was above the mid-point among the city’s local areas. Recently, a woman was attacked near Nanaimo Station early in the morning and a few months ago there were several muggings in and around this area. So what are we doing to combat this?
Located a block from Joyce SkyTrain Station is the Community Policing Centre. This is a community run centre that enables local residents to become empowered and work together to reduce crime rates. They have launched several poster campaigns to warn residents of danger spots and warnings to protect their safety. The centre has also been assigned a Vancouver Police Officer who holds regular hours at the centre and is familiar with the issues facing this specific community. Volunteers also work in the evenings and take phone calls from businesses and residents who want report a crime or simply keep themselves up to date initiatives being undertaken.
Some initiatives community members supported were Community Policing Centers, the City, the Police Department, business groups, and the community strengthening crime prevention efforts, including more citizen patrols, improved lighting in high crime areas, reviews of building design and landscaping to reduce opportunities for crime, and wider use of crime prevention and education programs for English, Chinese, and other ‘English as a Second Language’ groups. Special attention should be reserved for improving safety at SkyTrain stations.
This all seems like a great start and I think that the first step to making the community safer is identifying problem areas and brainstorming for solutions. That being said, a poster campaign and a police officer who drops in once a week does little to make me feel safer. Instilling a greater sense of community and getting to know one another as neighbors I think would go a long way to making people feel safer. This may lead to the establishment of neighborhood watch programs and give residence more confidence to act. While I believe the R-C Vision Safety initiative is on the right track there is still a lot of work to do in order to actually reduce crime rates and make Renfrew-Collingwood a safe place to live
After doing a little research I discovered that Renfrew-Collingwood’s overall crime rate is slightly higher than that of most other local areas in the city. In 1998, the rate of property crimes in Renfrew-Collingwood was around the middle when compared to the city’s other local areas. At 13 per thousand people, Renfrew-Collingwood’s rate of crimes against people (‘violent crimes’) was above the mid-point among the city’s local areas. Recently, a woman was attacked near Nanaimo Station early in the morning and a few months ago there were several muggings in and around this area. So what are we doing to combat this?
Located a block from Joyce SkyTrain Station is the Community Policing Centre. This is a community run centre that enables local residents to become empowered and work together to reduce crime rates. They have launched several poster campaigns to warn residents of danger spots and warnings to protect their safety. The centre has also been assigned a Vancouver Police Officer who holds regular hours at the centre and is familiar with the issues facing this specific community. Volunteers also work in the evenings and take phone calls from businesses and residents who want report a crime or simply keep themselves up to date initiatives being undertaken.
Some initiatives community members supported were Community Policing Centers, the City, the Police Department, business groups, and the community strengthening crime prevention efforts, including more citizen patrols, improved lighting in high crime areas, reviews of building design and landscaping to reduce opportunities for crime, and wider use of crime prevention and education programs for English, Chinese, and other ‘English as a Second Language’ groups. Special attention should be reserved for improving safety at SkyTrain stations.
This all seems like a great start and I think that the first step to making the community safer is identifying problem areas and brainstorming for solutions. That being said, a poster campaign and a police officer who drops in once a week does little to make me feel safer. Instilling a greater sense of community and getting to know one another as neighbors I think would go a long way to making people feel safer. This may lead to the establishment of neighborhood watch programs and give residence more confidence to act. While I believe the R-C Vision Safety initiative is on the right track there is still a lot of work to do in order to actually reduce crime rates and make Renfrew-Collingwood a safe place to live
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