Community Safety and Crime Prevention Strategy 2008

1. Community Safety and Crime Prevention Strategy 2008 David Wray Manager Policy Office of Crime Prevention

2. The basic program for today… • Overview of the State Community Safety and Crime Prevention Strategy 2004, and the 2008 renewal process • Discussion Break 3. Proposed new directions 4. Your feedback

3. Group Exercise • Take a couple of minutes to think about the crime issues that impact on you and your community (write) • Now talk with the person next to you/ small groups about your thoughts and comments • Feedback to whole group • Two or three main issues?

4. RENEWING THE APPROACH COMMENCED IN 2004 Community Safety & Crime Prevention Strategy for WA Vision: “to make Western Australian communities safer through targeted and coordinated crime prevention and crime reduction programs’. “

5. NEW APPROACH COMMUNITY SAFETY AND CRIME PREVENTION STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Community Safety & Crime Prevention Strategy for WA Local Government Vision: “to make Western Australian communities safer through targeted and coordinated crime prevention and crime reduction programs’. “ THE PARTNERSHIP Police, Justice & Govt Agencies Community

6. PARTNERSHIPS APPROACH Strategic alliance Acknowledgement that the State has prime responsibility for crime prevention. An affirmed position for local government with a key role in supporting crime prevention. State leadership on key crime issues Local Partnerships and Plans, facilitated by local government and based on local government areas.

7. Strategy renewal Comprising five key steps: • Evaluations • OCP Strategic plan 2008 - 2011 • WA Police Crime Prevention Agency Plan • Consultation (roadshow, discussion papers, conference) • Budget submissions

8. State Strategy evaluation • Audit of commitments – Near completion. Appears all commitments have been delivered. • however a number of gaps and issues are being identified… • ‘Best Practice Audit’ – Community discussion paper. Indicates WA approach aligns with world’s best practice • but again issues and gaps are identifiable… • Program evaluations: All OCP facilitated programs. To be released as community discussion papers over coming months. • Local Partnerships evaluation most critical. Community discussion paper imminent. • ‘Hot topics sheets’ – hot topics are major identifiable gaps. Three papers will be released in coming months: • Youth crime; • Crime Prevention and Indigenous Communities; and • ‘Knowledge management’

9. What has the 2004 strategy delivered: some highlights • Acknowledged ‘best practice’ model • The most advanced crime prevention model in Australia • Impressive reductions in crime (charts to follow) • Successful engagement of local communities: • 126 local government partnerships • 103 local crime prevention plans (74 endorsed) • Distribution of $10.5 million in community grants (including 748 funded activities) • A range of very successful programs • Extensive evaluations and research reports to inform the future • Delivery of all WOG actions as stated

10. Total crime is decreasing

11. Targeted volume crimes are decreasing

12. Where has the strategy delivered less than expected: some ‘lowlights’ • State Government agency buy-in… • Limited success of some WOG strategies (eg Early Years strategy)… • Making full use of the evidence base (stats and knowledge on ‘what works’)… • Sustainability of some programs… • Reducing re-offending… • Early intervention… • Targeting high risk groups and communities… • Broader community partnerships (business, indigenous)… • Making people feel safer - despite less crime, people feel as unsafe as they did in 2003…

13. Violent crime is not decreasing

14. About the State Strategy: Goals • Supporting Children and Young People • Strengthening Communities and Revitalising Communities • Targeting Priority Offences • Reducing Repeat Offending • Designing out Crime and Using new Technology

15. Feedback Exercise #1 • What examples are there of local or state actions in these goals? • What are we missing? • Are these goals still relevant?

16. Strategy principles 1. Evidence Based Crime Prevention 2. Working Better Together 3. Sustainability 4. Focus on Results 5. Targeted Efforts 6. Inclusiveness 7. Sharing Knowledge …But what do these actually mean in practice?

17. Evidence Based Requires accessible, user driven evidence gathering and analysis capacity. This involves: • Research functions: • Knowing ‘what works’ and as importantly, what doesn’t; • New research to ‘fill the gaps’ • Research leadership (policy function) • Data functions: • Access to recent and relevant data • Skills to interpret data • Evaluation capacity • Learning from our work • Learning from others work

18. Working Better Together Requires strategic and local partnerships in policy and project delivery. This involves: • State leadership and central coordination • Ongoing support from the centre • Accessible expertise and assistance (advice, grants, project set-up, evaluation etc) • All agencies equally ‘owning’ local issues; • Governance and accountability; • Expanding partnerships to involve all relevant stakeholders (business, indigenous communities, NGOs) • Two-way communication

19. Sustainability Sustainability planning in everything we do. This involves: • ‘Smarter’ grant funding processes • Support in establishing projects • High-level negotiation skills to lock in partners to maintain initiative momentum post funding/ pilot stages.

20. Focus on Results Requires us to know what our results are and to learn from them. This involves: • Evaluation capacity (across all areas of work.) • Be explicit in ‘expected outcomes’ • Effective data collection and analysis to track the outcomes • Performance/ policy/ practice feedback loops.

21. Targeted Efforts Requires an understanding of what data and research tell us about what the problem is, where the problem is and what is most likely to make the most difference. This involves: • Capacity to deliver initiatives (‘efforts’) to target areas, offences & offenders • Understanding the causes of crime & criminal behaviour • ‘Knowledge management’ • Good quality State, regional and local crime data & (socio-economic & demographic info) • Understanding what works to change behaviour or prevent crime • Training and development • Access to resources • Evaluation and research capacity • Learning from what we do, researching where there are gaps in our knowledge • Being responsive to emerging issues • not just continuing what we are already doing

22. Inclusiveness Requires the full engagement of partners, stakeholders, interest groups, relevant agencies and NGOs & community in strategic planning & local initiatives. This involves: • Full community engagement in local plans • Broad & deep consultation on new State policy developments, especially major strategies • Involvement of NGOs & LGA in strategic projects • Coordinating with other community resources • Planning resources, such as AJAs • Funding resources, such as Commonwealth and corporate (and other state funding opportunities)

23. Sharing Knowledge Requires communicating the evidence, the experience, the evaluation and the understanding about crime prevention. This involves: • Meeting information and advice needs of partners • Public information and marketing campaigns • Media management • Publications • Peer forums, conferences, seminars, papers etc • Briefings, workshops • Information exchange between partners

24. Feedback Exercise # 2 • How well are we (collectively) delivering on these principles? • What are the gaps? • What can be done better?

25. International ‘best practice’ in crime prevention • The need for well planned and well evaluated strategies • Complex ‘whole-of-government’ action, tackling the multiple causes of crime through a mix of initiatives focusing on: • children and families at-risk • increasing social cohesion • improving the environmental conditions of crime ‘hot spots’ and • placing more emphasis on problem-oriented policing. • Developing partnerships between police services and human service sector partners. • The need for multiple settings for crime prevention efforts • Social development, including early intervention • Community-based crime prevention. • Situational and victim-oriented crime prevention • Reintegration of offenders

26. International ‘best practice’ in crime prevention (cont) 5. The need for carefully planned localised responses, recognising the pivotal role of the local government level 6. A commitment to a partnership approach between the public, business and community sectors. 7. Multi-agency coordination, at both strategic and operational levels, in planning and delivery of services relevant to crime prevention and community safety 8. Community participation in the identification of local problems and their solutions 9. A central organisational structure at federal and/or state level providing strategic and funding support to community based arrangements

27. Feedback Exercise # 3 • How well are we (collectively) delivering on the best practice principles? • What are the gaps? • What else needs to be done in WA? • What can be done better?

28. Morning Tea break

29. What we propose to do: a summary of 2008 Strategy priorities OCP programs will be ‘realigned’ to ensure: • Support for the priorities of the local plans: • Antisocial behaviour; Youth issues; Alcohol; Designing out Crime; Fear of crime • Program efforts are better targeted to high need locations. • Drive down assault through coordination of the Preventing Violence strategy. • Closer alignment with WA Police crime prevention resources.

30. What we propose to do (cont) • Continue local Government partnerships but renew and strengthen delivery of plans. • Expand partnerships • KPIs and ongoing monitoring/ accountability • New State governance arrangements

31. What we propose to do (cont) • Communication efforts to reduce fear of crime through increased community participation • Knowledge management systems • Smarter’ grant making • Reinvigorate action in ‘Reducing Re-offending’ • Reinvigorate efforts in early childhood development

32. Workshop • Concentrating on the issues identified earlier, and • Referring to the proposed directions of the Strategy: • How well do these fit with the region’s needs? • Strengths and weaknesses/ advantages and disadvantages etc • How would you or your organisation go about implementing some of these? • What would be needed to help this action happen? • What have we missed? (What other actions could be added?) •  ”If you had the resources, what would you do?”

33. What’s next in the Strategy renewal process? • Community discussion papers to continue • WAPol Crime Prevention Plan - endorsement • Senior Officer’s Group – WOG input • State conference • Budget submissions • Endorsements (DGs, Minister, Sub-committee on Law and Order, Cabinet)