Crime Reduction Strategies and Budget Approved
Prince George, B.C.- At the end of this month, a special meeting of some of the most crime challenged communities in the country will take place in Prince George.
Mayor Shari Green says northern communities are over represented on the crime severity list produced by MacLeans Magazine, a list that ranked Prince George as the crime capital of Canada two years running. “We did have a healthy conversation about what’s going on in Prince George” says Mayor Green “ and the good things that are happening and where we land on the crime severity index, our goal of continuous improvement, the over representation of northern communities, the very highly ranked in terms of crime compared to the rest of the Nation.”
It is that over representation which prompted Mayor Green to invite representatives from those high crime northern communities to come to Prince George to talk about their challenges . She says there will be representation from senior government at that November 28th meeting, “To talk about what some northern strategies might look like, not just Prince George how we can all be helping each other across the north. This is something that will continue to evolve.”
Council for Prince George has given the stamp of approval to the draft recommendations originally presented to a Committee of the Whole session last month . The budget for each recommendation represents a share of the $200 thousand that had originally been set aside for the Mayor’s Task force on Crime. The Task Force was given approval to use $10,000 for meetings and organizational costs.
1. Prevent and Deter:
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Help high risk youth to access the supports they need and facilitate cross-agency resource coordination ($50,000)
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Implement a City Watch program, which is a CUPE BC program, that would have CUPE workers alert police to suspicious activities they may witness while on the job ($50,000)
2. Apprehend and Prosecute:
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Coordinate City mapping and RCMP crime analysis resources to enable a strategic and integrated response by RCMP, Bylaw and Fire Services. ($10,000)
3. Rehabilitate and reintegrate:
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Implement a graffiti reporting and removal program in partnership with an agency, or agencies, providing community service opportunities for offenders. ($20,000)
4. Perception and reality of Crime:
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Research perceptions of crime and feelings of safety in Prince George ($10,000)
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Identify and prioritise actions to address those most fearful of and/or vulnerable to crime. ($50,000)
Comments
No no no, put the money into the PAC.
Wasn’t all that long ago Mayor Green was visiting and touting Surrey as an example of how to fight crime. Surrey has now in 2013 set a new record for murders.
Does not say much for her choice of crime fighting examples to follow.
That is why we have a police force, to fight crime. She knows what a good job she is doing running the city, so it is time to show the police how to do their jobs the right way. Get rid of all the money and the criminals will have to leave …it just might work.
NO … put the money into attracting pensioners … not the crack and dope smoking type ….
They will bring us tons of money!!! LOL …
To see how much they will actually bring to the community, look at Census Canada data showing the percentage of pensioners in the Okanagan cities and how the average household income compares to PG ….
Please, please, pleas, give us more industry and workers who are earning high incomes, starting a family, making major purchases, and generally spending their money in PG, or BC with maybe a couple weeks of vacation outside of the country.
After spending how many millions? on the new police palace downtown I’m expecting to see cops walking around downtown keeping the riff raff at bay. I’m also expecting to see patrol cars up and down residential streets keeping the scum in hiding. I mean jeez, for 80 million bucks we should be getting something another then the usual speed traps.
‘Over-representation’, riiiight.
If that were true you wouldn’t need to do anything other than get them to change the formula…would you?
This town has always lacked activities for the 20 somethings. Lately most of the high profile crime has been 40 somethings.
“â¢Implement a City Watch program, which is a CUPE BC program, that would have CUPE workers alert police to suspicious activities they may witness while on the job ($50,000)” And this costs 50k, why? Let me guess, all CUPE members are now going to have their cell phones paid for by the city so they can use them to “alert” the police.
High crime rates are not just a problem in northern communities, some provinces have much lower crime rates than other provinces.
For example all the western provinces; Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC have higher than the national average crime rates. Call us the “wild west”.
Out of 239 indexed Canadian Cities, Prince George is still in the top 20 highest crime rate cities in Canada.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2012001/article/11692/tbl/csivalue-igcvaleurs-2011-eng.htm
An elected city councillor said at a campaign meeting in the Ramada Inn that we need to attract more people to come and live in PG so we can lower taxes. That’s what he said. Right Dave? Please explain. Thanks.
“Implement a City Watch program, which is a CUPE BC program, that would have CUPE workers alert police to suspicious activities they may witness while on the job ($50,000)”
Why would this need to be “implemented”? Would we not just expect city employees to report suspicious behaviour. And why $50,000?
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