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More N.B. crime prevention strategies planned for year ahead

Dec 28, 2017 | 4:00 PM

North Battleford Community Safety Coordinator Herb Sutton is hoping 2018 will be a big year for crime reduction and prevention in the community.

He said two new projects, led by the city’s Safety, Acceptance, Guidance and Empowerment (SAGE) multi-partner committee, will help provide some new strategies to deal with crime. 

One major initiative involves bringing together municipal, provincial, federal and First Nations government, to be part of a coalition that “will help drive community safety initiatives in the community.”   

“Community safety can’t fall on the shoulders of the municipality,” Sutton said. “It has to be shared by all four levels of government. That’s a big project we’re working on right now.”

He added the city signed an agreement with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to get started on the project.

He expects there will be an announcement about the initiative in the New Year.

The city is also working with the federal government’s Public Safety Canada to host a two-day workshop that will also involve the four levels of government and a number of community groups as well, to discuss how to help make North Battleford a safer place.

Sutton said participants in the workshop will develop a working plan and present it to the new coalition which will help implement it. 

The community safety coordinator also hopes to see the city’s new proposed neighbourhood plan move ahead – a Crime Prevention through Environmental Design review committee initiative.

This project involves dividing North Battleford into 11 neighbourhoods — each with its own distinct name and set boundary lines — with the hope that residents will develop a sense of pride, and will get to know their neighbours to work together to help keep their neighbourhood free from crime.

Sutton said it’s easier to keep a community safe by targeting individual neighbourhoods separately, rather than focusing on the community as a whole. 

“We’ve been working on that for a year now,” he said. “I hope folks know we did a lot of community engagement around that… We had a lot of positive feedback. We expect in January or February the final recommendations will be going to city council.”

“The safest communities in the world are ones where people know each other,” Sutton said.

Sutton believes other projects dealing with crime prevention will help as a deterrent. This includes the city’s Eyes that Care program where participating residents receive a motion sensor light as a safety initiative. In exchange for the light, participants report anything suspicious to police, and meet with their neighbours to help keep watch over the neighbourhood.

The city believes if it can encourage residents to take responsibility for their own areas, there will be a 10 per cent reduction in preventable crime.

Sutton encourages more people to sign up for the program.

“Those are very proactive things people can do,” he said.

Another component of community safety involves ensuring residents have access to affordable housing to meet their needs.

A housing study commissioned by the city will be released in February to address the issue.

  

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow