One year into its anti-gang campaign, Crime Prevention Ottawa released a report last month showing signs of progress, despite a challenging year for police. With more than 30 shootings in the city so far in 2014 – already surpassing last year’s total – organizers are emphasizing positive results in local communities beyond the numbers.
There have been undeniable successes in the Ottawa Gang Strategy. Programs such as Pixels for Pistols, which offers cameras in exchange for firearms, have removed more than 1,000 guns from the streets of Ottawa, the report says.
And overall crime in the city is dropping, Police Chief Charles Bordeleau states in his latest annual report.
“We are accomplishing great things together,” he writes.
But the numbers have played out differently in Centretown, where gang violence has been an ongoing concern. While overall crime and crimes against property were down, crimes against the person were on the rise in Somerset Ward (up eight per cent in 2013), according to statistics available on the Ottawa Police Services website. An OPS survey claims only 53 per cent of residents feel safe walking alone at night.
Police have now begun investigating a shooting that took place just two weeks ago near LeBreton Flats. A man was left with two non-life-threatening bullet wounds. In May of this year alone, three shootings took place within Centretown, though not all gang-related.
Nancy Worsfold, executive director of Crime Prevention Ottawa, describes how hard this can be on communities.
“When there’s an incident in your neighbourhood, and there’s flashing lights outside your window, and then they just leave . . . that makes you afraid. That kind of thing breeds mistrust,” she says.
First responders and community stakeholders are constructing support systems to address the impact on neighbourhoods after moments of shock. The post-incident response is just one aspect of a strategy that puts community needs at the focus of the complicated causes of crime.
The Ottawa Gang Strategy arose after recommendations from a public forum in 2012 on addressing gangs in the city, of which there may be up to 19 as the report notes. City residents expressed needs for crime prevention and neighbourhood cohesion.
“This is a complex, multi-faceted response to a complex problem,” Worsfold says.
Described in the report as a “corner of the desk” activity squeezed among regular duties for the nine Ottawa organizations involved, their endeavours have been supported by little-to-no new funding from the city. Much of their progress in the first year revolved around forming necessary relationships in communities.
“I think people sometimes want us to snap our fingers and be done with it,” says Katherine Neff, executive director of youturn, an Ottawa organization that counsels youth who have been found guilty under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Youturn has partnered with the John Howard Society to work with the siblings of known gang members who are at risk of joining them. Though they’ve just begun engaging with these youth, Neff stresses the important foundation this year has laid.
“I have spent my entire career working with these kinds of clients. I am absolutely optimistic. Change is slow, and sometime pretty hard-won. Being engaged in something like this is a process, and it takes time,” she says.
“One way we can deal with gangs is through education and awareness,” says Laili Yazdani, of Local Agencies Serving Immigrants.
Community members were invited last month to tour the Ottawa Police headquarters on Elgin Street in an effort to build trust and relationships.
“These activities break barriers and lead to better dialogue between our communities and police,” Yazdani says.
“The really nice thing at the end of year one is just the sheer commitment of a whole bunch of small agencies to come together and try to put things in place that didn’t previously exist. I think it’s been great,” adds Neff.
To read the full report visit www.crimepreventionottawa.ca.