NATIONAL COMMUNITY
CRIME PREVENTION PROGRAMME

Deciding on your project

What to do

Are you concerned about crime and safety in your area? If so, this tip sheet will help you plan a crime prevention project that could lower crime ates or make people feel safer in your local community.

Key questions for your project:

• What should it focus on?

• How do you decide whether this focus is important?

• Who else in the community thinks this is important?

• What is already being done?

Prepared in partnership with the Australian Institute of Criminology

Focus

People in your local area may be concerned about:

• specific crimes—for example violence in and around pubs, violence in homes, the number of houses being broken into, the number of cars being damaged or stolen, the graffiti on walls etc, or

• certain places—like a park in the day or a car park at night time—where people are afraid to go, or

• particular groups—for example a particular group of young people who commit crime, people who are dependent on illegal drugs, or people who live in a certain neighbourhood.

It is important firstly to establish what you can do to make a difference in your community. Being clear about what you want to achieve will help in the planning of what can be done. Your project could consist of one focussed activity or a range of different activities.

It is important to state the aim of your crime prevention project. The aim can be broad or quite specific. Here are some examples of aims both broad and specific.

Specific aims

1. “We want to reduce the amount of residential burglary in our local area by 25%.”

2. “We want to reduce the amount of property crime around the shopping precinct.”

Broad aims

1. “We want to make more local people aware that domestic violence is a crime.”

2. “We want to reduce the likelihood that young people will binge drink, use illegal drugs and commit crime.”

Sources of information

There is information available to help you work out your focus and objective, and it is important to research the subject you are interested in. Learning about what has been tried before in your own and other communities in relation to a particular type of crime or safety issue will help you in planning your own project.

It is essential to look at recorded crime figures for your local area. Ask the local police how you can get this information on crime for the local area or region. There may also be other useful information about your local area available such as information on school attendance, the number of broken street lights in the past year, the number of women who use the local refuge, the number of liquor outlets in your local area, recent migration trends or unemployment.

General statistics on your local area are available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website www.abs.gov.au/ausstats. This site will provide information on your local area including a breakdown of age groups, families, household types, income and educational levels in your local community.

Resources and information about good practice in Crime Prevention

Australian Government Crime Prevention website
http://www.crimeprevention.gov.au

The Australian Institute of Criminology website
www.aic.gov.au

New South Wales
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/cpd/ll_cpd.nsf/pages/CPD_index

Victoria
http://www.crimeprevention.vic.gov.au

Queensland
http://www.communities.qld.gov.au/community/crimeprevention/

Western Australia
http://www.crimeprevention.wa.gov.au/html/index.cfm

South Australia
http://www.cpu.sa.gov.au/sa_projects.htm

Tasmania
http://www.police.tas.gov.au/community/cpcsc

Northern Territory
http://www.nt.gov.au/justice/ocp/graphpages/

Australian Capital Territory
http://www.jcs.act.gov.au/agencies.html

Make sure you have community support

Communities are made up of diverse groups of people and it can be hard to reach agreement on what is important. Getting agreement on your community’s crime prevention goals can take time and needs to be done carefully. You need to make sure you have community support and that a representative mix of people in your local area agree on your main aim.

Crime prevention or community safety committees

If you already have a crime prevention or community safety committee for your local area then this gives you a head start. However, think about whether the committee needs more or new members. Think about whether others in the community, who are not already involved, know about the committee and support what it does.

Think about whether there are people who should be consulted but would not go on committees or attend community meetings. Perhaps some people in your community would not feel comfortable attending public meetings. If there are such people, then you should go and see them as they can still contribute even without attending a meeting.

If you don’t already have a crime prevention committee, then decide whether you need one and what the role of the committee should be.

Community meetings can be held to discuss what could be done and how it could be done. Such meetings can be opportunities to work out a focus and the main aim. They can also help in identifying key people who can support or be directly involved in what you’d like to do.

You may need to hold a series of meetings, involving different groups of people. Think about the purpose of these meetings. Think about how to let people know what was discussed and decided in the meetings and what will be done next.

Key people

In your local area there are people who deal directly with the harm caused by crime and violence, such as hospital staff and police. Different groups within the community have a particular interest in certain crimes. For example, the government may want to stop damage to its property or shop owners may want to stop the theft of their goods.

There are groups, agencies and people who may be able to assist you because of their knowledge, resources or skills. Think about who to involve in working out your plan and who can assist in implementing what you decide to do.

You may decide to work together with another group in partnership on the project. Examples might include a local Aboriginal organisation; a youth centre management committee; a Parents and Citizens committee from a local school; the local RSL executive; a Rotary or Lions Club or your local council. There may be organisations or people within the community that may resist or stand in the way of what you’d like to do. Plan how you might work to win their support.
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Remember!

A crime prevention project needs to be:

• realistic
• well planned
• supported by the local community
• supported by local resources where possible
• linked to past and current activities in the local area A crime prevention project should have:
• clear objectives
• activities that are clearly linked to the objectives
• community support
• a plan of activities over a specified period of time
• a way of monitoring progress during the project
• an idea of what is expected to change
• a management structure
• a budget
• an evaluation
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