Creating Safer Communities Through Partnerships

Longland P¹*

1. Department of Emergency Services, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

This presentation will examine the opportunities and challenges faced by service delivery agencies in enhancing the capability of communities to prevent crime and improve safety.

The core of the Community Safety Project is the establishment of a local partnership between the Department of Emergency Services (DES), the Queensland Police Service (QPS), the Department of Housing through the Community Renewal program, community organisations and residents to identify and address local community safety priorities. Residents, locally based emergency services operational staff and police officers work collaboratively to assess the safety needs of the community and to develop tailored programs to address those needs.

The Community Safety Project builds on, strengthens and rejuvenates an existing community network (Neighbourhood Watch). While DES and QPS staff assist with the identification of community safety issues and provide advice on how to address them, the project is driven by the targeted Neighbourhood Watch group.

The project builds community capacity to identify and implement local solutions to local problems and demonstrates the effectiveness of strengthening and building on existing community structures.

Learnings from the project have confirmed that community safety issues need to be identified and addressed locally. Sustainability requires community capacity development, local ownership and high-level commitment.

The roles and responsibilities of both community and government participants must be clearly defined, communicated and shared.

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