Community policing equals safer cities

Some delegates attending the 104th annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Charlottetown this week must be scratching their heads as they grapple with the essential role of community policing in fighting crime. The theme of the conference is 'Creating Safe and Healthy Communities through Social Development,' meaning that today's policing executives need to focus on finding new ways of integrating police services with the communities they serve. Key sessions of the conference are focusing on proven community safety strategies.

That being said, the host community has just seen its community policing officer position eliminated. The Charlottetown Police Services officer, who once did the job by himself, will be back on a regular beat once the conference ends, as he was seconded for the past several months helping to organize this national event. Delegates at the conference must be wondering if Charlottetown is off in some netherworld when they are told about the recent changes and reorganization with our local police service.

At a press conference in Charlottetown last Friday, police chiefs with law enforcement agencies from the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada took the opportunity to release the 2009 Report on Organized Crime in Canada. We heard that the illegal drug trade is the most pressing crime threat facing Islanders and that Prince Edward Island is not immune to organized crime. The place to start the war on drugs is in schools, where the CPS community policing officer did most of his work.

The recommendation to eliminate that position was one of the more puzzling elements in the report earlier this year on the problems facing the Charlottetown police force. The report said all officers must be involved in community policing and that the entire force must be viewed as community policing officers. One officer cannot do the job alone and the authors of the report felt that designating one person would impede the chances of others on the CPS taking community policy seriously. Still, a community policing officer could spearhead projects and ensure other officers get involved as well. There must be a lot of philosophical debates on this issue going on in the halls and corridors of the Charlottetown Civic Centre during breaks in plenary sessions and professional development sessions this week.

Last Friday's press conference noted that drugs continue to be the primary concern for law enforcement agencies in P.E.I. and the variety of drugs now available in the market have made the illicit drug trade the most pressing organized crime threat identified in the province at this time. The same is true for most jurisdictions in Canada as this Gentle Island is not immune from the problems that big cities face. Fighting crime is also costly. In 2009, P.E.I. launched its first Criminal Intelligence Service Bureau at a cost of $320,000 annually. The bureau focuses on criminal intelligence activities in the province and provides guidance in the collection, analysis and production of intelligence.

While law enforcement agencies are engaged in combating organized crime, the public also has an important role to play. Information provided by the public is critical in helping law enforcement agencies keep our communities safe. Crime prevention is really everyone's responsibility and can't be dumped on the shoulders of a community policing officer or his or her co-workers. If drugs are an increasing problem, or crime is rising, we all have to share the blame, because a safe, crime-free community and province is something we all must take seriously.