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Community collaboration is a chief ticket to crime prevention • ISCPP 2018 Symposium in PHOTOS

Those with a vested interest in crime prevention from Canada, the United States and even Bermuda gathered last week for the International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioners (ISCPP) 2018 Symposium in Niagara Falls, Ont. — the first time in more than 30 years the symposium has been hosted on Canadian soil.

September 25, 2018 By Staff

Tom McKay

Tom McKay, president elect and symposium chair of the ISCPP, explained the society is “dedicated to the reduction and control of criminal opportunity and victimization by stimulating the exchange of ideas among ISCPP members.” He noted the success of the organization is “in many ways contingent upon its ability to rally and bring together professionals from a variety of disciplines. It is in this setting that meaningful discussion on matters of safety, security and lifestyles will continue to evolve.”

Niagara Regional Police officer Robin Bleich, who is also the chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) crime prevention committee and has been dubbed an agent of change on a global level, delivered a personal and inspiring keynote address about how education is prevention.

Bleich pointed to the importance of collaboration, knowing your audience and community needs, and building out from this knowledge.

“If crime has no boundaries, neither should your crime prevention program,” she told the crowd of around 70 on Sept. 20.

Felix Munger, the managing consultant for the Canadian Municipal Network on Crime Prevention, also presented that day on “upstream” prevention — preventing crime early on with a multi-sectoral, community-based approach that targets the youth. This needs to be informed by crime prevention data and evidence, he added, and feature a permanent community safety/crime prevention board, adequate and sustained funding, standards and training, and public consultation, support and engagement.

He also noted the crime issues requiring attention today are:

• street crime and gang related shootings
• intimate partner and sexual violence
• Indigenous persons who are victims of violence
• substance abuse, overdoses, trafficking
• violent extremism and radicalization

Other speakers included Sean Sportun, the security and loss prevention manager for Circle K Stores Central Canada Division, Manuel Parreira with the Bank of Canada, Const. Amy Boudreau with Peel Regional Police crime prevention services (see her feature in our Aug./Sept. issue on the Clear Zone program HERE), Const. Ryan Smith of the Halton Regional Police Service, among many others.

In addition to the conference sessions, 37 participated in the International Crime Prevention Specialist (ICPS) program, which gives participants three-days of comprehensive crime prevention training, covering nineteen core areas, and concludes with a 200-question exam.

For more information, visit www.iscpp.org.