Programme highlightsThe Opening Address was given by Commissioner M. Wilson Makhubela of the South Africa Police Service. He spoke of the great vision of an Africa renaissance held by President Mbeke of South Africa and his fellow African Heads of State, where Africa will take its rightful place among the continents, ‘without loosing its diversity unique culture and identity’….and he hoped that ‘the vision of African unity will extend to African partnerships in crime prevention, and with other countries and continents’. Opening address
ICPC’s Director General Terrance Hunsley gave an Overview of comprehensive and urban renewal initiatives and crime prevention (attached below). Three country examples of current comprehensive urban renewal programmes were presented by Jon Bright Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, England and Wales; Anne Wyvekens IHESI,France; and Janine Rauch, Consultant to SAPS, South Africa. Overview of comprehensive and urban renewal initiativesJohn Bright noted that the significance of the National Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy is that it replaces the old approach of small short-term funding and pilot projects. It targets the 841 poorest wards in 88 districts in England and Wales. This involves 88 new partnerships. Its aim is to narrow the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country on six key issues: crime, jobs, health, education, employment and housing. It is based on a whole of government approach, new funding, targets and policies, local cooperation and empowerment, and national and regional support. It does not impose a single solution, because of the variety of problems and contexts encountered at the local level. Using the principle of ‘mainstreaming’ its aims to improve public services in a lasting way, not provide short-term to help shore up poor services. The strategy also uses a system of ‘floor’ targets, eg. reducing domestic burglary by 25% in areas where levels are three times the national average.
After two years of implementation, the most common crime problems identified are burglary, drug dealing, anti social behaviour, fear of crime, robbery and domestic violence. Some of the most successful crime reduction action has included Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Neighbourhood Wardens. There are now 300 of the latter who provide a permanent on-site presence and the ‘glue’ for the neighbourhood. After initial concerns, they now work closely with the police. Preventive youth work has targeted the most 'at risk' kids, with leisure and other support programmes. Intensive neighbourhood housing management is also working well. Implementation problems remain the biggest challenge, however, and the conditions for success identified include knowing that (national) ministries are also working hard in those areas, having good leadership and management, having accurate analysis of the problems and the right package of measures to meet them, and a team with good implementation skills.
Anne Wyvekens, IHESI, France, started her presentation on The evolution of city policy in France, highlighting information from a comparative study of local crime prevention policies in France and the United States. Up until the 1980’s in France there was no local security policy. The municipal police were had sole responsibility for such issues. Increases in insecurity resulted in the development of the local partnerships on crime prevention in 1983, which have been transformed over the years into local security contracts, and give a pivotal role to the mayor. They are supposed to involve community consultation. However, in comparison with police partnership crime prevention programmes in Chicago, for example, it would appear that citizens are largely absent from the development of local contracts in France. Consultation is either absent or very general, and it would seem that many mayors find it difficult to make contact with citizens on these issues, or know how to organize community participation. ` The evolution of city policy in France
By comparison, in Chicago, they were treated as being in charge of their communities, reinforcing the confidence between citizens, and there exists a strong community policing presence. In France, the role of police de proximite is much more timid. There is now, however, a move to target crime prevention as part of a new urban renewal approach. Recent new legislation on urban renewal focuses attention on the urban regeneration zones ( zones urbaines sensibles ZUS) and an Observatory or monitoring center has recently been established for the ZUS.
Janine Rauch, Consultant to SAPS, South Africa, outlined the development of the South African Urban Renewal Strategy (URS) launched in 1999 by President Mbeke, which followed the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security. The URS was inspired by ‘the correlation between crime, poverty and race’. While there is no specific policy document, the strategy has been built up over the past four years, focusing on five main issues: economic development, improved governance and service, improved physical environment, improved housing, and social capacity-building, and community development. The strategy involves multi-disciplinary interventions in specific urban ‘nodes’. Initially a crime prevention approach had been strongly emphasized, but subsequently this has been restricted to ‘improved levels of (personal) safety’ and an emphasis on local crime prevention programme development, and improving services by criminal justice agencies (a ‘crime fighting’ rather than a crime prevention’ approach as she has termed it elsewhere (Pelser, 2002)).
The six urban sites in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Kimberly, Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela, have developed different approaches and partnerships, and there is no guaranteed national funding for the strategy, so funding has been a problem. The sites vary in size, and can cover vast areas. They are all former Black townships with high levels of unemployment, high youth populations and levels of HIV/AIDS. There has been a lot of emphasis on development plans. The 1998 White Paper was the first policy document giving municipalities responsibility for crime prevention, but it is evident that they lack crime prevention capacity. The most common activities have been ‘hard’ ones - building sports facilities, police stations, improving public spaces and introducing CCTV etc. ‘Soft’ community development work has involved community police forums, school safety, youth development, mediation and job skills, much of it delivered by NGO’s rather than municipalities. The challenges include ensuring a balance between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ development, and enforcement and prevention, building multi-agency partnerships, funding and gathering evidence-based information. Emerging issues include the importance of city by-laws and their enforcement, the impact of politics, and the need to be clear about the objective of all strategies aimed at crime.
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