Building Safer Communities: Addressing Violence and Crime in St. John's

Today, Council approved the Building Safer Communities Strategy at the Committee of the Whole Meeting, which supports crime prevention activities throughout the City. The strategy is a comprehensive plan aimed at addressing the root causes of violence and crime while promoting a safe, connected and healthy community for all residents.

The strategy identifies 50 action items to achieve the following eight goals:

1. Strengthen community organizations' capacity to address root causes of violence and crime.

2. Enhance the City’s capacity through training, resources, and partnerships.

3. Increase public awareness and education of the root causes of violence and crime, and local prevention programs.

4. Foster community collaboration and leadership in addressing violence and crime.

5. Advocate for systemic legislative and policy reforms to address violence and crime.

6. Improve understanding of crime trends and intervention effectiveness through research.

7. Promote cultural respect and Indigenous rights through collaboration and anti-racism efforts.

8. Enhance public safety through better urban design and infrastructure.

The goals and action items in the strategy were carefully developed through public engagement, research, and collaboration with community partners. An evaluation framework will guide the progress and ensure that all actions are aligned with measurable outcomes.

The Building Safer Communities Strategy is designed to evolve over time, reflecting the needs of the St. John’s community. City staff, along with the Building Safer Communities Steering Committee, will review and update the strategy based on continued feedback from residents and community partners.

The City of St. John’s has a strategic direction to be a Connected City, one where people feel connected, have a sense of belonging and are actively engaged in community life. This strategy will advance this direction by improving access to programs, services and public spaces that build safe, healthy and vibrant communities.

The City of St. John’s today released a What We Heard report summarizing findings from public engagement which took place in February and March on the development and facilitation of a new crime and violence prevention strategy.

The primary focus of this strategy is to address the root causes of violence and crime, particularly for children, youth, young adults, and their families. While the City does not provide direct services or programs related to public safety or crime prevention, it acts as an important facilitator in developing long-term strategic planning and concrete initiatives to improve community safety.

The What We Heard document will be shared with Council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Highlights of What We Heard:

• Root Causes of Crime: It was believed that the most significant root cause of violence is poverty, with other causes being drugs and addictions, housing crisis/homelessness, lack of health care and mental health services.

• Crime and Violence Trends: Most participants believe there has been a significant increase in crime and violence citywide and in neighbourhoods over the past two years. The top forms of violence or crime that were perceived as being an issue at the neighbourhood level were vehicle thefts and break-ins, drug use and trafficking, reckless driving, and noise disturbances. The top form of violence and crime experienced were threats, criminal harassment/stalking, physical assault, theft and stolen property.

• Perception of Safety: Most participants feel safe in their homes and believe that neighbourhoods are generally safe with neighbours looking out for one another.

• Reporting and Non-reporting of Crimes: Most participants who experienced violence or crime reported it to the police. Of those who did not report, the top reasons identified were the belief nothing would change, a lack of confidence in the legal system, and a lack of confidence in police.

• Personal and Home Security Measures: The most common routine changes and security measures reported were always locking windows and doors, installing lights, new locks and security bars, using alarms and surveillance systems, leaving lights on and avoiding walking alone at night.

• Top security measures: Keeping lights on, installing lights/alarms/surveillance, installing new locks/security bars.

Recommendations: participants across all engagement formats made a number of recommendations to address the root causes of violence and crime, which are outlined in detail in the report. Some of these include actions to address poverty and homelessness, increased collaboration and coordination between all levels of government, enhanced education and training and increasing funding, resources and community programming. As many of the recommendations are not within the City's control, staff will identify relevant recommendations for the City and eligible activities for the Building Safer Communities Fund.

Promotional efforts resulted in over 1,700 visits to the project page on EngageStJohns.ca. Participants could provide feedback and ask questions on the project page, register for meetings, take surveys and learn about other ways to engage. Three public sessions were held to collect feedback, which were attended by 17 people. In total, over 1,140 people provided feedback through either surveys, the project page, email, phone or meetings. In addition, 50 representatives of community-based service providers took part in focus groups and City committees and working groups were also consulted.