Integrated Crime Prevention Strategies for Rail Stations: Preliminary Findings

1. PATREC Research into Integrated Crime Prevention Strategies for Rail Station Environs: Preliminary Findings Trudi Cooper1, Terence Love3, Fred Affleck2, Angela Durey1 1 Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, Australia, 2Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia3 Design Out Crime and CPTED CentreContact person: Dr Terence Love admin@designoutcrime.org PATREC Research Forum 19 September 2006

2. Problem • People gather in and around railway stations • Some people’s behaviour: • Is loud, possibly ‘anti-social’ but not strictly illegal • Perceived as threatening to others • Results in fear that deters people (including young people) from using the rail system • How can agencies work together to reduce public safety concerns that deter them from travelling on rail

3. Map

4. Four stage research project plan • Problem scoping • Plan ‘pilot’ interventions • Undertake interventions • Evaluation and final report

5. Problem scoping • Four high incident locations identified by PTA from incident statistics • Problem scoping in each area used SSM and CATWOE: • In-depth semi-structured interview with Senior Transit Guard (TG) Manager to gain understanding of perspectives of PTA on issues in each of the four locations. • In each of the four local government areas: Focus groups with youth workers and other relevant community organisations, to gain understanding of perceptions of issues, incidents, and causes of issues at each location (referred to as ‘local group’) • Combine data to provide ‘rich pictures’ of problem contexts for each of the 4 locations

6. Intervention planning-1 • Facilitated meetings between ‘local groups’ and PTA representative(s) • Differences in purpose, priorities, interests and preconceptions of agency representatives were made explicit and acknowledged • Meeting participants examined, discussed, elaborated and corrected the information in the ‘rich picture’ for their location

7. Intervention planning -2 • Participants identified collaborative interventions • Social action facilitation was used to enable participants to : • Share and clarify goals, perspectives and priorities • Identify most pressing issues for change in each locality • Clarify parameters for local collaboration • Identify and plan actions as a group to positive improve the local situation

8. Project implementation • In each of the four locations: • Partner agencies collaborated to develop locally relevant projects in accordance with their existing work priorities • A small amount of seeding money to help with non-recurrent expenditure • Groups met regularly to: • Review progress • Identify barriers to implementation • Adjust interventions

9. Evaluation • The final report will: • Document the research • Describe the findings • Make recommendations for future directions

10. Research Objectives • Improve perceptions of safety in rail environs • Develop collaborative relations between PTA staff, relevant local government agencies, community agencies and non-government youth workers. • Identify and test interventions to reduce conflict between: • Young people • Other members of travelling public • PTA security staff • Develop positive changes that will be sustainable • Develop transferable model of interagency collaboration

11. Factors shaping research -1 • OCP funding requires action research • Interagency collaboration notoriously difficult • Need to help participants avoid adopting solutions prematurely based on superficial understanding of contexts • Need to collect full breadth of knowledge available from participants

12. Factors shaping research -2 • Need to help participants overcome feelings of hopelessness because problems seem intransigent • Strategies to assist youth development and support community safety • Agencies collaborate in discussion, but will take responsibility for, and manage, own projects

13. Research assumptions • Success depends on accurate & holistic understanding of cultural & environment factors that shape anti-social behaviour • Opportunities missed when individual agencies unaware of how they affect other agencies • Collaborators would have: • Apparently shared goals such as desire to ‘improve community perceptions of safety’ • Initially, different understandings of what these entail

14. Uncoordinated Single Agency Responses • Single agency responses are rarely successful • Uncoordinated responses typically: • Move ‘problem behaviour’ from one location to another at considerable expense • Increase youth alienation, which may increase anti-social behaviour • Lead agencies to blame others for problems

15. Research methods • The research combined: • Soft Systems Method for contextual data collection, analysis, choosing interventions • Group facilitation using Social Action method for supporting inter-agency collaboration, resolving group conflicts, overcoming apathy and hopelessness, and as a foundation for sustainable outcomes

16. Soft system method (SSM) • SSM used to help participants make explicit the complexity : • The variety of problem issues • The relationships between agencies • Environmental issues (urban planning etc) • Organisation issues (e.g. rostering TGs) • Management and power issues • Identifying potential actors and strategies • Identifying which transformations were beneficial and possible • Identifying different perspectives and ways of looking that diffeent participants brought to the table • Used SSM ‘rich pictures’ in problem scoping, intervention planning and evaluation

17. Social Action method • Social Action approach was used in facilitating collaboration, action planning and and as the framework • Based on Friere’s ‘Participatory Action Research’ Approach

18. Research Pitfalls • Potential misunderstandings about goals, priorities and roles of other agencies • Miscommunication if issues are oversimplified and viewed only from perspective of each agency’s central concerns

19. Research Pitfalls • Group dynamics, interagency politics, and rise that some agencies dominate discussions or exclude others • Inaction because problem(s) seem too complex and intractable • People try to ‘shift the problem’ to another agency (related to feelings of helpless ness/ hopelessness above)

20. Armadale • Main issue: Fear of assaults by other patrons, especially intoxicated patrons • Survey of young people’s perceptions and experiences of train travel, safety and security • Trial collaborative project by Drug Arm to provide an on-train service for drug and alcohol affected young people Friday and Saturday nights • Liaison with the PTA community education project

21. Joondalup • Main issue: assaults on TGs, importance of consistency and continuity • Informal liaison between shopping centre security, detached youth work team and TGs. • Liaison between Joondalup Youth Support Services and TG’s • New zip card distributed by youth services to include rights and responsibilities on trains

22. Midland • Multiple issues: stolen identity, fines, family violence, conflict young people TGs, escalating offences, lack of Indigenous TGs • TGs have become involved with PCYC and Corridors College • Practical solutions found for stolen identity, personal details, and response to fines • Broker three way partnership between PEEDAC, CYTS and PTA for Indigenous pre-TG course • Future issue: safe-house for young people

23. Gosnells • Main issues: graffiti, station avoidance, rail track crossing, cultural issues, media perception of TGs • APLOs to become involved in TG cultural awareness training • New zip card issued by youth services to include rights and responsibilities on trains • Liaison with planners about future development and ‘design out crime’ initiatives • Liaison between youth agencies and PTA community education section about track safety

24. Other outcomes • Informal contacts between community agencies and PTA staff resulting from this project have resolved many important issues for individuals. • Changes to organisations’ systems to respond to problems in the longer term. • PTA operational changes will help build more positive relationships, support interagency collaboration and help to reduce conflict in rail environs. For example: • rostering transit guards on the same line; • permanent staff at Kelmscott • fare gate attendants to try to address issues of staff shortage of transit guards. • community education programs • Active resolution of problems : • has increased the confidence of community organisations and young people. • Is crucial to building a culture of public support for PTA staff to seen as people who maintain public safety and offer help.

25. Conclusions – interagency collaboration • Significant improvement in interagency collaboration • All agencies involved in this project are now more likely to resolve problems in partnership rather than singly • The project has helped agencies become more aware of how their decisions and operational choices positively or negatively affect the work of other agencies. • It has enabled a number of sources of conflict resulting from lack of interagency collaboration to be addressed. • Some TGs have become involved voluntarily with youth organisations and this will contribute to improved relationships in the long term. • These concrete outcomes of the project are an essential part of the process of winning broad-based public support for the transit guard role.

26. Conclusions – young people • In rail environs, many tensions between young people and others can be resolved through interagency collaboration involving PTA TGs and management, youth workers, community workers and other non-government agency workers • Many concerns young people raise can be addressed quickly and easily once transit guard managers are aware of the problem and this • Has increased the confidence young people had in the fairness of the transit guards • Will contribute in the longer term to improved relationships between transit guards, youth services and young people.

27. Conclusions – positive public regard • Public regard for PTA transit guards and the work that they do is improved by: • Formations of multiple relationships with a range of community organisations • Speedy resolutions of practical problems raised by youth workers and community representatives

28. Conclusions - managing relationships • Interagency collaboration requires longer term commitment of resources • Maintaining positive collaborative links is time-consuming and uses resources • Requires on-going conflict resolution even when agencies acknowledge collaboration is beneficial • Resources and time required to establish relationships • Collaborative discussion has already commenced about obtaining resources and managing collaborative partnerships : • Local government partners and Corridors College have offered to host future meetings • Community liaison as part of role of a senior member of PTA staff • Success of ongoing projects initiated and resulting from this research depended on finding people who: • Wanted to try to do something to address the problems • Are prepared to accommodate changes in established single-agency practices to do so • Are flexible in their approach to problem solving

29. Conclusions – general issues • We identified that prior to this project: • Agencies typically did not consult with each other about changes that affected other agencies unless they were in similar areas of work. • Commonly, lack of communication occurred either because they had not considered another agency might have an interest in the problem being addressed or because agencies were unaware of the existence of other agencies • Clarification of goals and roles of partner organisations essential to the later success. For example: • Youth and community agencies found TGs performed welfare function • PTA staff gained referral options and reassurance of community support • Initial negotiations to identify and build agency partnerships and to agree funding took much longer to complete than we anticipated: • High turnover of staff in local government community services positions • Multiple parties were involved (OCP, PTA, 4 local governments, and 25 agencies) • Results varied between locations: • The issues differed • Mix of agencies that are active varies between locations

30. Recommendations • We strongly recommend community liaison becomes the major part of the role of a senior member of PTA staff. • Significant additional time and resources needed for: • Preliminary stages of collaborative multi- partner projects • Establishment, management and maintenance of interagency relationships • Interagency research in this area must secure: • Flexibility to allow for different outcomes from different partnerships • Participants with sufficient seniority to implement changes • Partnerships that focus on what can be achieved by participants not on what other people should do • Collaborative partnerships with people who are prepared to look for unconventional solutions when conventional approaches have failed • Increased attention is needed to ensure media, and others who influence public opinion, present transit guards in a way that invokes similar levels of public support as for other public servants