Fear of Crime: Perspectives from a Mayor
There has long been a perception that Kitchener’s downtown core is more unsafe than other downtowns and neighbourhoods in our Region. To dig deeper into the Snapshot in Time: Root Causes of Crime in Waterloo Region indicator on fear of crime, we tracked down the Mayor of Kitchener, Carl Zehr.
1) What is your response to the data presented on the fear of crime indicator? How does it make you feel when you reflect on this indicator?
The indicators in this report are generally not surprising to me since they reflect other statistics I have seen. While this region is often expected to do better than the rest of the province and country, it is clear that we are very similar to other CMA’s in Canada. There are a few areas where we rank a bit better in the indicators but it is clear that the general economic success of the region enjoys does not translate to every sector of our community. Given the recent information regarding crime in the downtown versus suburbs, we continually need to deal with the perception of crime versus the reality. The perception is the downtown is not safe – the reality is it’s growing, has changed dramatically and if crime is an issue, it’s more outside of the downtown. Perceptions need to change too. We therefore, collectively, have a lot more work to do.
2) Who is involved in addressing this issue in the community? What are you already doing about it?
Through the programs the city supports at the community centres and neighbourhood associations, many people have been busy providing value added and positive activities for the community as a whole, and, especially for youth. There are many independent not-for-profit organizations in the city and community that are also providing services and programs which allow people of all ages to “stay out of trouble”. Kitchener and other local governments provide funding for many of these organizations even though “it is never enough”.
Economic and education opportunities have a significant impact on crime rates. Indirectly the city’s economic development division helps the cause by working to create the climate for entrepreneurs and companies to succeed.
3) What else should be done and/or needs to be done about it?
As noted above, we have many organizations doing good work but I think the fact that there are so many may be holding the community from improving our ranking. Organizations and funding bodies, including governments, of these organizations need to give serious consideration to eliminating duplication of service and programs so that more resources can be directed towards to the programs and away from administration.
Many of these various agencies (connected to this issue and others) appear to be so competitive and spend a lot of time figuring out how to survive (writing grants, etc.) rather than working collaboratively or merging to improve programming/services. Streamlining services to have one access point helps people figure out where to get help. The Community Support Connections model, which merged 4 seniors’ agencies, is a good model and not many have followed it.
Thank you Mayor Zehr, for your insightful responses.
What do you think about fear of crime in Waterloo Region neighbourhoods?
Read more community responses about fear of crime:
- Fear of fear and risk of risk by Funke Oba, Community researcher & organizer, past President of ACA-WR
- Restorative Justice reduces fear of crime by Sue Klassen, Restorative justice researcher & practitioner