Community
City Council Candidate Vesna Higham Unveils Crime Platform
There’s no doubt that the #1 issue of concern among Red Deerians today is Community Safety and Security. Red Deer currently ranks #2 in THE COUNTRY for overall crime, with a Crime Severity Index (CSI) of 182 (compared to the national average of 69.7). It’s top of mind for everyone across the board, and is so in large measure, because we’ve all witnessed the rise in local property crime in particular over the past few years, and that sense of being personally violated is alarming.
People in our community are looking for leadership and direction on this particular issue, as paramount in the collective mindset of the electorate – and there are things that can and MUST be done in order to reduce both the frequency and severity of crime in Red Deer.
Having served on Council from 2001-2004, I understand that there’s no one magic bullet to tackling crime. There just isn’t. What is needed is a multi-pronged approach to this broad issue that intersects all levels of government. Although the problem lives in our back yard, we at the municipal level don’t have all the resources, or even the jurisdiction at times, to address every angle of the issue – because it’s a complex, multi-faceted problem. So much of the recent uptick in crime is fueled by the opiate addiction crisis, for example, which falls under the province’s purview, or homelessness, which intersects both federal and provincial authority.
However, there are things that can and MUST be done at the local level in order to bring our crime rates down.
So here’s my Platform on Community Safety & Security:
1. We need intentional leadership to direct K-Division and local resources to identified, targeted needs: so YES, more officers on our streets, but also more POLICE VISIBILITY, and more police INTERFACE with ordinary citizens & community groups to engage and inform. Utilize “NOTIFY RED DEER” to interface as needed.
2. Citizens benefit by personal police connection to direct how we can become part of the solution (ie: report ALL crime, Neighbourhood Watch, Citzens on Patrol, regular meetings with neighbours in our subdivisions (attended by police) to be each other’s eyes and ears on the streets, etc).
3. Transfer some of the bureaucratic & paperwork burden from trained officers to increased clerical staff (at significantly less expense), to free up officers to maintain a greater police presence on our streets.
4. More focus on innovative crime fighting strategies like ALERT, and Project Pinpoint, so that we work SMARTER, in addition to working harder. Speaking of working smarter, listen to this story …
Over a period of 8 years, Mayor Rudy Giuliani utilized the highly successful COMPSTAT program in New York City, to reduce murders in that city by nearly 70% and overall crime by about 65%! The impact of Compstat was immediate and revolutionary: major crimes fell 12.3% from 1993 to 1994. Murders and robberies dropped 17.9% and 15.5% respectively over that same initial first year.
The principle behind Compstat is simple: collect and analyze crime stats DAILY to identify patterns and potential problems. Transmit that data to a map of the city that shows geographical concentrations of criminal activity and sorts them out by hour of the day, type of crime, and day of the week. Produce weekly summaries to reflect trends over time, and THEN assign officers and resources to the targeted areas in a proactive manner. Other cities throughout the States have since implemented Compstat with similar results.
So, what can we learn from this?
I believe we should absolutely look to implement the simple, but rigorous tenets of Compstat to address the crime in our community, rather than looking to reinvent the wheel – or merely “throwing more officers at the problem.” It may take some organizational effort and considerable “buy in” on several levels to bring our current operations on board, but if we’re serious about fighting crime, we have to be willing to do some things differently.
5. I also believe we should examine the future viability of a “hybrid” police service, consisting of a primary Municipal force, with an ongoing RCMP contract to address certain types of crime (drug trade and organized crime, etc.). There are significant benefits to having a municipal force, including local officers who stay long term in the city and are deeply rooted and vested in the community, as well as the flexibility to directly hire, train, oversee and govern the force without having to answer to a federal body. However, with the current state of crime in in our community, I don’t believe that now is the time to make a switch over to a new policing model.
At the moment, we need to be able to increase capacity and efficiency in our policing model, and the simple fact is the RCMP is considerably less expensive to operate per officer than a municipal force – not to mention the infrastructure and assets (fleet, equipment, uniforms, weapons, etc) we would have to fund on our own were we to set up a municipal force. Not that it can’t or shouldn’t be done – the timing is just not right at the present time.
Right now, we need the FOCUS, CAPACITY, and FLEXIBILITY of our existing model to swiftly address the crime spike in our community – then we can examine phasing into a “hybrid” service once we’ve achieved manifest results on that front.
For more of my campaign ideas, please visit my VoteVesna Facebook page, or contact me at: 403-505-1172 (cell) or [email protected]. Thank you.
Experience matters.
#VoteVesna
#Integrity #Experience #CommonSense
Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!
Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!
To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy
Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.
In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.
B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.
But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.
Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.
According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”
In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.
Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.
This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.
The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”
The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.
Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.
Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.
Deborah Birx Gets Her Close-Up
CDC Quietly Admits to Covid Policy Failures
Japanese study shows disturbing increase in cancer related deaths during the Covid pandemic
Biden’s Kill Switch: The Growing Threat of Government Control of Your Car
-
Brownstone Institute1 day ago
Deborah Birx Gets Her Close-Up
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 days agoWhy Are Canadian Mayors So Far Left And Out Of Touch?
-
Business2 days agoTrudeau gov’t pledges $42 million to the CBC to promote ‘independent journalism’
-
Alberta1 day agoCoutts Three verdict: A warning to protestors who act as liaison with police
-
Justice2 days agoOntario Court of Justice says participants must state their ‘preferred pronouns’ during introduction
-
Alberta2 days agoMaxime Bernier says it’s ‘astounding’ Alberta is ‘pushing’ COVID boosters, tells Danielle Smith to stop it
-
Business2 days agoCanada’s economy has stagnated despite Ottawa’s spin
-
Alberta1 day agoAlberta moves to protect Edmonton park from Trudeau government’s ‘diversity’ plan