NCJ Number
164895
Journal
Gazette Volume: 58 Issue: 9 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 7-12
Date Published
1996
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes how police cooperating with community organizations has resulted in programs that have reduced crime and complaints of discrimination by police among residents of public housing complexes in London, Ontario (Canada).
Abstract
The 1995 statistics compiled by the London Urban Alliance on Race Relations, a community-based organization composed of representatives of 15 vulnerable minority groups as well as a number of affiliate members, showed a significant decrease in the Alliance's caseload of complaints, due largely to a reduction in complaints from the housing complexes in the city. This article examines reasons for this decrease. The Alliance proposes no single answer to the decrease, but rather attributes it to a wide-ranging series of initiatives put in place by the London and Middlesex Housing Authority, private housing complexes, the police, tenants' associations, and community groups such as the Alliance. The police have worked with the housing authority and community case workers to provide recreational programs for youth in the summer months. The overall program not only provides organized recreation activities but provides crime prevention programs by the police in the schools during the fall and winter. In December 1995, the housing authority and London Police started a winter basketball league that involves approximately 100 teenagers. Many of the initiatives are funded by local businesses. Other programs have targeted parents in an effort to instruct them in the principles of cooperative living. Thus, figures compiled by the community and verified by the police show that programs proposed and implemented jointly by police and the community make a difference. The key components of success appear to be commitment, cooperation, and communication.