NCJ Number
206687
Journal
Criminal Justice Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 115-128
Date Published
May 2004
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the role of the community safety officer (CSO) in local government and presents results from interviews with CSO's in the Australian State of Victoria.
Abstract
In Australia and other countries, CSO's have become an occupational group responsible for developing and implementing crime-prevention and community-safety policies and strategies. This analysis of the CSO role and its relationship to crime prevention policy and practice is based on research into the development of crime-prevention policy in Victoria. A total of 25 interviews were conducted with CSO's, as well as interviews with State government policy officers, advisors, and ministers. The nature of the CSO role under the Safer Cities and Shires strategy is examined in order to provide a clearer understanding of local practice. General lessons are drawn from the interviews to reveal the relevance of local experience to broader government policy and theories of crime control. A brief history of the CSO's role in Victorian crime-prevention policy is followed by a description of the change-management role of the CSO. The article concludes with a discussion of occupational conditions as key constraints for CSO's. The author argues that despite the history and vital role that CSO's have played in Victorian community-safety programs, more recent policy shifts have de-emphasized the CSO role within State policy. A new community safety program developed by the Labour Government in 2002 largely bypasses and is unclear about the role of CSO's in program delivery. If local governments are to cultivate the development and practice of expertise in community safety policies and practice, the occupational groups that embody this expertise must be supported by contextual and administrative environments which ensure that acquired occupational knowledge and skill are effectively used and have the desired effect. This means that CSO's, which constitute the occupational group with knowledge about crime prevention and community safety, must be accorded the resources, authority, and decisionmaking power needed to produce the full impact of their expertise on policy development and the coordination of program implementation. 45 references