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Kahnawake Public Safety. Crime Prevention and Community Based policing model Tonia Williams, Public Safety Development Analyst/Corrections Supervisor CAGP-Winnipeg 2018. Backgrounder. Why community consultation over policing for First Nations communities?
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Kahnawake Public Safety Crime Prevention and Community Based policing model Tonia Williams, Public Safety Development Analyst/Corrections Supervisor CAGP-Winnipeg 2018
Backgrounder • Why community consultation over policing for First Nations communities? • Build trust in light of Colonization, residential schools and Indian Act, racism; • Big effect on higher unemployment rates, suicide, crime rates, recidivism;
Backgrounder • A closer look: • - Colonization, Indian Act and Residential Schools took language, culture and traditional forms of Peacekeeping and governance away and replaced it with something foreign; • Created mistrust, intergenerational trauma and abuse; • Took away communities ability to create viable economies and rely on Federal transfer dollars.
Backgrounder • These dynamics create “socially disorganized” communities.. • Lack of trust to band councils, mismanaged governance, lack of trust to policing agency • Leads to more arrests, more violence, less mediation, less problem solving, less participation and more unreported crime; • More tolerance to crime; crime becomes the NORM
Solutions? • Socially organize our communities-where there is mistrust, make trust! Get the community involved, interested and willing participants in the state of their community. • Talk about it! acknowledge it! Then do something about it!
Kahnawake Mohawk Approach • Kahnawake is Mohawk Community identified as a Federal reserve (#14), governed through the Indian Act. • We rely on transfer dollars and agreements to fund our police, fire, ambulance and hospital center. • 8000 on reserve population; • Own police force (with civilian oversight body) • Hospital, Social Services, bank, economic development services, court (hears traffic offenses), language programs, media outlets, such as community radio station, independently owned newspapers, Chief and council, 3 different traditional longhouses and Mohawk Emersion school. • The court generates revenue from Traffic tickets and our economic development looks for ways to invest revenue generated from investments (gaming, wind mills). • All other services receive dollars through Federal/provincial programming. • But we do it!
Kahnawake Mohawk Approach • Kahnawake slowly built up its services and activities in area of policing and crime prevention • Going back as far as 1940, when the first Mohawk replaced the R.C.M.P agent • Had our own force in 1970’s and 80’s; • Finally in 1995 we signed a tripartite agreement with Canada and Quebec recognized our police force with training; • All Mohawk officers are all now trained (now) at the R.C.M.P training facility in Saskatchewan. • 25 officers (with a top capacity of 45) • Funding is based on program agreements (not core essential services funding) • Relatively new Peacekeeper building that houses equipment, 4 wheelers, cars, trucks and boats with a impound yard.
Kahnawake Social Problems • Studies indicated in 2011 that we had growing • -unemployment rate (12%) • -high numbers on social assistance • -high rates of drug/alcohol use • - High numbers of children in care • Started a community mobilization effort: • (a) visioning Project • (b) Collective impact Committee (organizationscome together and start addressing each issue)
Community Policing and crime prevention initiatives • Mid 70’s and 80’s some community initiatives starting to develop around policing; • As early 2000s approach there was a need to increase those activities (after 1990 Oka Crisis) • Starting to draw in policing role into these mobilization efforts (visioning, collective impact) • Started to include police chief as a leader and apart of effort to combat social problems (i.e active on Justice and other social committees)
Community response to social disorganization • All efforts can be seen to lending toward social organization- mobilizing our community efforts toward organizing our approach, services and actions around specific issues. • For policing we based our efforts on the sociological theory of crime causation known as social disorganization theory that espouses low economic status, ethnic heterogeneity, residential mobility and family disruption lead to community disorganization that increases crime and delinquency rates”. (Shaw and McKay). • If the relationships, services in the community are not stable, crime will for sure be higher. • No one will care, report, or trust the police and crime will become the NORM. • Once people are attuned to activity in their neighbourhood, they will care, they notice and they will become involved in combatting crime as partners to police.
Community Response to Social Disorganization • Crime prevention initiatives, community mobilization groups and community based policing all lend toward reversing social disorganization that works toward reducing crime rates. • By making people comfortable and trusting of the policing agency will allows them to report more activity, get involved and not allow crime to be the NORM.(KEY)
The importance of Community in First Nations Policing • First Nations communities are only ones that should be policing each other. • First Nations Police on own territory possess knowledge about their culture, customs, traditions and way of life that no one else can offer. • They have value in their own community because they are apart of that that community. • Know individuals and for the most part what their social issues entailand circumstance and they lend an understanding toward that.
First Nations People Policing First Nations communities • Officers are from the community and have a natural need to want to diffuse rather use forceful measures; • We need to see each other at community functions, post office, bank. • And it works! • We need civility, we need a deeper level of understanding of the social issues that plague our communities rather than straight incarceration. Our communities are complicated and have torn histories.
First Nations Policing • We need these approaches more than ever because of colonization, social inequalities created from the Indian Act, Residential Schools: intergenerational trauma • (Kahnawake) shooting of David Cross in 1979-community member shot by the Quebec police on his own property in front of family. Officer charged with manslaughter. Set off the tone for need to expulse outside forces. • 1990 Oka Crisis-Canadian army, military police, RCMP and SQ occupy outskirts of Kahnawá:ke and patrol roads. • All of these circumstances have disorganized our community, caused distrust for policing/enforcement agencies.
First Nations Policing • We have a lot of work to do to undo this trauma and make our communities vibrant, safe and proactive and begins to repairing harm done by outside agencies and history. • Begins with focusing on relationship between police and community.
Kahnawake community policing initiatives • Challenge Cup • Racers for Health • “Move over” Law initiative • Echoes of Proud Pow Wow • Peacekeeper Charity Golf Tournament • Noon hour talk show (radio crime prevention) • Mohawk Miles (community run) • Zombie Run (Halloween) • Dreams Take Flight (Charity flight for children to Disneyland) • Christmas Parade • Winter Carnival • Saint Patrick's Day Parade • Spot Check prevention initiative
2015 & 2017 • We wanted to know how the community was receiving these activities and what they thought of policing, crime and overall safety. • What can we do better!
Policing & Crime Prevention Research Project 2015 & 2017 • Assess communities perception of crime (what’s it doing? Increasing, decreasing/remaining the same) • Overall perception of the performance of the Peacekeepers; • How are the prevention and community based activities fairing?
Approach & Methodology • Devised a research plan that identified 3 days in July that officers, members of the oversight board, research lead, summer student would sit at bank/post office and get community members to fill out surveys! • Monkey survey link for on line surveys with community & staff. • Articles published in local papers, TV interviews • Opened office doors to come by, fill out survey on a Saturday with coffee/muffins. • Gave out lanyards, hats, stickers, pens and 2 $75.00 gift certificates!
Results • Total respondents in 2015: 182 • Total respondents in 2017: 222 • Moderately satisfied with results, considering a lack of trust in community and first time EVER we did this. • Helped us understand what we could do differently in future (bigger budget! More resources!) • Great start!
Results in Both Surveys & Comments • High desire to see more crime prevention and community based policing initiatives • Perception on Crime: Increasing every year (when it was decreasing) • What crimes? Drugs, organized crime, violence (including unreported domestic violence) • Where? Homes, businesses and local streets. • What can do more of? Patrol in neighborhoods at night, isolated areas, parks and recreational paths • Areas for PK improvement? Providing information to community on services and more impartiality/fairness. • Areas PKs doing well? responsivity, ensuring public safety
Overall Rating • Peacekeeper Performance is GOOD (medium result) • Excellent place to begin improvements! • Introduce initiatives that deal with the results and re-test
What does the future hold? • We hope to introduce policy via the Peacekeeper Service Board that links new activities that respond to the results • (i.e formally release crime/activity reports, create a community watch program of volunteers to patrol areas that Peacekeepers cannot adds a visual impact!) • Engage in a more proactive relationship with community to lower crime rates through prevention and bring up community rating of peacekeepers.
Crime Prevention initiatives extend to Parole & Probation • One initiative we’ve taken to address crime prevention and community based approaches to policing, through our parolee program: • Under s. 84 (Corrections Conditional Release Act) created a group of specialists who work with prisons and community offenders to successfully reintegrate back into the community; • We see them mid sentence in prison, assess their needs and apply resources (traditional healers, addictions counsellors) look into training etc. • Once on full parole we have a community based Parole supervisor, which (I do) as part of my duties- • I fuse community strategy/support to parole supervision, we work with Corrections Canada to make sure conditions are followed but we provide added support. • This strategy is just like community based policing, where we identify (culturally, socially and geographically) to individual veer away from crime, repeat offense and reintegrate/live healthy lifestyles in community.
Crime Prevention initiatives extend to Parole & Probation • The best people to oversee the community, is the community. • What we are finding with Parole, that failures (re offences) came from not having support to guide them, resources, ability to identify with them and provide encouragement-culturally based • 97% success rate. • Individuals are leaving happy, acknowledged. Some don’t want to leave and continue therapy and some want to return as role models to new parolees in programming we offer. • In process of lending that to probation, which we have a much higher number of offenders.
