ICPC's City Exchange Programme launched in Liège The International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) is an international forum whose mission is to help cities and countries improve community safety and reduce crime and violence through efficient and sustainable policies, strategies and preventive action. One of the ways ICPC helps to put knowledge into action is by fostering challenging exchanges between countries and cities, criminal justice institutions, and community based organizations. In 2002, ICPC decided to implement a city exchange program on public nuisances and drug- and prostitution-related safety issues. It was hoped that this program would stimulate the exchange of experiences, nurture dialogue and foster the sharing of know-how between cities confronted with issues relating to public safety and well-being.
This initiative progressively took shape over the course of discussions with the Permanent Secretariat for Prevention Policy of Belgium, the Interministerial Delegation to the City (DIV) of France and the cities of Bordeaux, Liège, and Montreal. The program was officially launched in March 2004 at the first City Exchange Program meeting which took place in Liège. The second meeting is scheduled to take place in Bordeaux on June 14, 15 and 16, and the first year of operations will wrap up with a meeting in Montreal later this Autumn.
Quebec Observatory on Community Safety and PreventionObservatories, or monitoring centres, have been established in the field of drugs in many developed countries, and have demonstrated their capacity to inform policy-making and program development. In community safety and crime prevention, there are few such monitoring systems. In most cases only police statistics and victimisation surveys are available to inform policy development. Local and urban community safety monitoring centres have been established in some cities, especially in Europe, and ICPC conducted a pilot study in 2001 for the City of Montreal. 
This year, ICPC is involved in the development of a ‘Quebec Observatory on community safety, victimisation, and prevention. This pilot project began in September 2003, and is being directed by Serge Bruneau, in cooperation with the following local partners: l’Institut national de santé publique Québec (INSPQ), le Réseau québécois de Villes et Villages en Santé, l’Union des municipalités du Québec, the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec, and the Quebec Office of the National Crime Prevention Centre, Department of Justice, Canada.
What follows is a brief description of this initiative, written by Claudio Besozzi, Analyst of the Quebec Monitoring Agency (available in French only).
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