By Kelly Bullock
At a time when Ottawa residents are feeling increasingly less safe, the city is cutting funding to the Ottawa Centre for Crime Prevention.
The centre, which opened in 1984, and has worked with the community to promote safety and implement crime prevention programs, will soon close.
The announced closure comes just after the centre released a study that showed 47 per cent of 2,724 Ottawa residents polled responded that safety in the city had decreased.
“Definitely there’s a feeling of insecurity in our community right now,” says Chris Gazeas, a spokesman for the centre. “But what was even more shocking from my perspective was that 88 per cent said city council should see community safety as top priority or high (priority).”
Despite the survey results, council rejected a plea for funding during budget talks.
At the same time, the police services budget was trimmed, leaving police to make up for a $2.1-million shortfall.
Gazeas says the city should look at crime prevention as a solution to future budget cuts.
“If they (council) don’t take the steps to prevent crime then obviously our reactive services are going to have to increase every year,” says Gazeas.
The study also found that residents are interested in community approaches to crime prevention, he says.
But those looking for community strategies will have to deal with the closure of the centre for crime prevention and the possibility of additional cutbacks to community policing centres .
Over the past few months, police chief Vince Bevan and Herb Kreling, chair of the police services board, have discussed closing the 22 centres to remedy budget cutbacks.
Peter Crosby, superintendent of the Ottawa Police west division and project manager for the community policing centres, says he’s been asked by chief Bevan to examine the value of the centres.
“It’s not about opening and closing anything right now, it’s about looking at feasibility and what makes sense,” he says.
An internal investigation will take six to eight weeks before the public will be asked for input on the centres, says Crosby.
Currently, each centre is staffed by one police officer and volunteers who focus on dealing with crime prevention programs such as Neighbourhood Watch.
Irvin Waller, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, says the centres do little to reduce crime.
He suggests an approach where community police work with other city agencies to solve problems before they turn into crime.
“Having a police agency that works with school boards to keep kids in school, that works,” says Waller.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes agrees.
“I believe strongly that we need social service and housing all working with health centres and the police to work on how we make the community safer,” she says.
If the policing centres survive , Holmes says she will work with business and community groups to see that the centres have adequate staff and better hours.