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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:58 am
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Results for policing (vancouver, canada)
2 results foundAuthor: Dandurand, Yvon Title: Confident Policing in a Troubled Community: Evaluation of the Vancouver Police Department's City-wide Enforcement Team Initiative: A Report prepared for the City of VAncouver and the Vancouver Agreement Coordination Unit Summary: This evaluation, sponsored by the Vancouver Agreement Coordination Unit, was designed to assess the impact of the Vancouver Police Department’s City-Wide Enforcement Team (CET) initiative implemented in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) area of the city during the during the months of April-September, 2003. The CET followed a number of previous police interventions in the area that targeted the drug trade and was initiated after a planning process that included an unsuccessful attempt to secure additional fiscal support from the City Council. The CET had three primary objectives: 1) to bring order to a disordered community; 2) to disrupt the open drug market; and, 3) to disrupt the flow of stolen property into the DTES. These objectives were to be achieved by providing an enhanced police presence in the area in an attempt to disperse drug dealers and their user-clients and, in doing so, reduce the levels of disorder and increase safety and security in the area. The CET represented a dramatic departure from the previous “containment” approach wherein policing services were provided to the DTES on a primarily reactive basis. Senior police personnel viewed the initiative as a long-delayed fulfillment of their legislated mandate to provide full policing services to the residents of the DTES. To assess the effectiveness of the CET, in-depth interviews were conducted community residents, business owners, incarcerated offenders, health care professionals, the police officers who were assigned to the DTES at the time the CET was implemented, and IV drug users. In addition, systematic field observations were conducted in the DTES during a three month period and focus group sessions were conducted with community residents, persons involved in the delivery of social services, sex trade workers, and members of NGOs in the DTES. Statistical information from the Vancouver Police Department Computer Aided Dispatch system (CAD), the PRIME record system, the pawnshop data base, as well as from other agencies, including Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, B.C. Ambulance Service, the Coroner’s Office, and hospital admission data were retrieved and analyzed. The results of the analysis indicate that the CET was successful in disrupting the open drug market, reducing the general levels of social disorder, and enhancing the general feelings of safety and security among persons who live and work in the DTES. The CET was less successful in pursuing drug dealers and the associated criminal activity that was displaced into other areas in District 2 and into adjacent police districts. There is some evidence that the drug market in the DTES adapted to the increased police presence, becoming more orderly, dispersed and moving out of the public realm into private locations. The price and availability of drugs in the area were not significantly impacted. Drug dealers and their clients who were displaced to other areas created localized crime “hot spots” of drug dealing and associated disorder, although this occurred in the context of overall declines in drug and public disorder offences in all police districts in the city during the last nine months of 2003 as compared with the same time period in 2002. With respect to potential detrimental effects of the initiative, there is no evidence that the CET had a measurable impact on the number of fatal drug overdoses in the DTES or adversely affected IV drug users with respect to their access to HIV prevention, needle exchange and other services. Nor is there evidence that the risk behaviour of IV drug users was influenced by the CET initiative in a way that noticeably increased public health risks. The data that were gathered for the evaluation did not allow a determination of whether the CET was successful in interfering with the flow of stolen property into the DTES, although the stolen property market was forced to become more discrete and more of the stolen property may have been fenced out of the immediate DTES area. Police officers, community residents, IV drug users, and others who offered an opinion on the subject shared the view that the stolen property market had not been significantly reduced. Senior police personnel, based on their observations, believed that the flow of stolen property as it existed prior to the CET had been impacted and cited the Extract data to support their view that the quality and value of stolen goods flowing into the DTES had declined. The attempt by the project team to assess the impact of the CET on the stolen property market in the DTES was hindered by methodological difficulties. There was general support among community residents, business owners, sex trade workers, and IV drug users for the increased police presence in the area and with the performance of the police. There was also an expressed desire that the police enhance their relations with the community through expanded foot patrols and increased training to better equip officers to effectively police the area. Some concern was expressed about the policing styles of some officers assigned to the area. Residents were divided as to whether the overall quality of life in the community had improved, although their overall feelings of safety and security had increased. The effectiveness of the CET was compromised to some extent by insufficient coordination and joint planning with other agencies and organizations in the DTES, a lack of departmental resources, and by some inconsistency in the policing strategies used by officers in the DTES. The results of the study also indicated that the CET would have benefited from a comprehensive communication strategy to increase the awareness of community residents and business owners and others involved in the delivery of services in the area. A major limitation of this evaluation is that the survey interview data were gathered six months after the CET initiative was implemented and it can be expected that this short time frame is sufficient only to capture certain facets of any changes in community life in the DTES. It is difficult to determine the extent to which medium and long-term changes are occurring and whether these changes are permanent or ephemeral. It is also unrealistic to expect that the dynamics of life in a community, where crime and disorder had become deeply entrenched, would be significantly and measurably altered in six months as a consequence of one initiative such as the CET. It can be expected that the dynamics of life in the DTES will continue to evolve and that specific initiatives, such as the CET, will evolve as well. The special initiative did serve a number of purposes, one of which was for the VPD, as an organization, to accept and acknowledge its responsibility to challenge its own long-standing policy of “containment” and to move proactively to provide effective policing services to the DTES community and to attempt to improve the overall quality of life for all of its residents. Details: Abbotsford, BC: University College of the Fraser Valley, 2004. 251p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 29, 2010 at: http://www.vancouveragreement.ca/wp-content/uploads/ConfidentPolicing2004sm.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Canada URL: http://www.vancouveragreement.ca/wp-content/uploads/ConfidentPolicing2004sm.pdf Shelf Number: 120152 Keywords: DisplacementDrug DealersDrug EnforcementOpen-Air Drug MarketsPolice-Community RelationsPolicing (Vancouver, Canada)Public DisorderStolen Goods |
Author: Griffiths, Curt Taylor Title: Civilianization in the Vancouver Police Department Summary: The Vancouver Police Department is currently in the midst of an Operational Review that is examining key components of the organization and delivery of policing services. The core projects within the review are: 1) a study of overtime; 2) an examination of patrol and investigative deployment; 3) a study of the opportunities for civilianizing positions in the Department; and, 4) operationalization of the Strategic Plan. This report presents the findings and recommendations from the civilianization study. It identifies a number of positions currently occupied by sworn officers that could be filled by specially-trained civilians and, as well, provides data on the cost implications of civilianizing these positions. This report sets out a policy on civilianization that can be used to guide the assessment of future positions that may be developed within the Vancouver Police Department. As well, the report addresses the issues of developmental positions in the Department, the need to accommodate officers who are on reduced duty, the potential opportunities for additional shared services between the Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver, and the current situation regarding sworn officer secondments to other police duties. Details: Vancouver, BC: Vancouver Police Department, 2006. 344p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 28, 2011 at: http://vancouver.ca/police/assets/pdf/studies/vpd-study-civilianization.pdf Year: 2006 Country: Canada URL: http://vancouver.ca/police/assets/pdf/studies/vpd-study-civilianization.pdf Shelf Number: 121141 Keywords: Civilian EmployeesCivilian Police OfficersCosts of PolicingPolice AdministrationPolice OrganizationPolicing (Vancouver, Canada) |