Municipal Network Recommendations
In order to better understand municipal involvement in community safety and crime prevention in Canadian cities, IPC conducted in-depth consultations with members of the Municipal Network on Crime Prevention. The consultations resulted in profiles for each municipality, which are available on the Municipal Network section of the IPC website as well as the report Making Cities Safer: Canadian Strategies and Practices, which examines themes and challenges facing the 14 Canadian municipalities in their efforts to implement and sustain evidence-based community safety and crime prevention initiatives. These are summarized as follows:
- Strong leadership from local authorities and alignment of community safety with other local priorities;
- Coordination among all orders of government and appropriate funding for municipalities for initiatives that target root causes of crime;
- Keeping the focus local in setting priorities, establishing partnerships and engaging the public and the private sector;
- Effective use of data, knowledge and information for conducting evaluations to guide decisions on what works and how to apply resources to tackle local problems.
Click here for an in-depth examination of these themes.
Based on an analysis of the information gathered through the consultations as well as the examination of municipally-based crime prevention initiatives at the international level, IPC and the Municipal Network also offer a set of guiding principles for all orders of government that will enhance efforts to reduce crime and victimization and improve community safety. A major challenge to implementing and sustaining coordinated initiatives that was identified is the lack of coordination among levels of government in setting priorities and funding programs that target root causes of crime. As a result, the guiding principles focus on municipal, provincial and federal governments and coordination among them to:
- Establish and/or assist responsibility centres to lead and coordinate crime reduction and community safety strategies;
- Expand collaboration with municipalities in addressing priorities at the local and community level;
- Invest more to improve the effective use of knowledge and data;
- Increase levels of sustained funding for targeted programs; and
- Provide more avenues for effective public engagement.
Click here for an in-depth description of these guiding principles.