A local government’s success in helping make the community safer depends on how well it knows, understands and responds to community concerns and community ideas about public safety.

Community safety is everyone’s right and responsibility. All members of a community should feel safe in the place they live. All community residents and groups play a role in making their community a safer place.

Local government should engage with the community on community safety issues with the aim to provide solutions rather than just identifying problems.

Getting people involved

Asking people who live and work in the community about what is happening there helps Local Governments:

• make good decisions about priorities
• determine how they can improve community safety
• determine which agencies they can work with to help make the community safer.

Community members should also be asked for suggestions on how community and individual groups can improve community safety and how they can work with council to make their area a safer place for everyone.

Engaging with a community can happen in a variety of ways, for example:

• holding public meetings
• undertaking surveys, for example - through personal interviews or distributing questionnaires
• forming safe space project groups, community safety committees, working groups
• establishing community safety audit teams
• organising community safety workshops.

Community safety groups and stakeholders

Community safety affects everyone who lives and works in the community and, ideally, everyone should have the chance to have their say.

Old people, women and young people are likely to have different ideas, feelings and experiences about where, when and why they do not feel safe and what can be done to fix this problem. So it is important to involve Elders, men’s and women’s groups, and youth in discussions about community safety.

Groups and organisations already working in the community to improve community safety should also be involved, for example:

• community justice groups
• local police
• magistrates
• child safety officers
• probation and parole officers.

Other important stakeholders that should be involved include:

• parents and citizens groups
• staff of the PCYC
• school principals and teachers
• hospital or clinic staff.

Community safety concerns

Important things a local government can learn from community residents:

• where do people feel unsafe?
• why do they feel unsafe in those places?

Questions that help get this information include:

• where do you feel safe or unsafe?
• who do you feel safe or unsafe with?
• when do you feel safest or most unsafe?
• what experiences make you feel unsafe - where and when does this occur?
• what safety issues have you seen others, for example - young girls, children, women, old people - in your community experiencing?

Remember that young people, old people, women and men may have different answers to these questions so it is important that all sectors of the community are engaged or asked these questions.

Safety audits are also a good way to learn how safe or unsafe public spaces, for example - streets, parks, recreation facilities - are. Safety audits are undertaken by groups or teams made up of interested people, for example - members of community justice groups, councillors and others - who then provide a report back to council or a safe spaces project group.

In addition to what people say, councils can look at what evidence there is on what is happening in their community. For example, this information might come from council records on vandalism or local law offences - or from data provided by agencies such as the local courts, police, clinic or hospital.

Making the community safer

Once council knows what the community thinks about safety issues in public spaces it can seek community views about what can be done to make those places safer.

The first step is to identify some key community safety goals. These might have already been agreed or identified in the community plan, Local Indigenous Partnership Agreement, Local Implementation Plan or negotiation table action plan.

Examples of key community safety goals:

• keeping children safe
• reducing violence or harm
• developing pride in place through a tidy, well maintained community.

Other issues to seek community ideas about include:

• what can be done to make the community a safer place to live?
• what can Council do about achieving the community safety goals?
• what can community groups or people do to improve safety in the township?

Possible strategies for improving community safety in public spaces:

• councillors, elders, parents and teachers showing leadership and acting as good role models in treating other people respectfully and without violence
• council building positive relationships with other government agencies, community organisations, businesses and community members to address safety concerns
• council developing and implementing policies and programs to plan, build and maintain safe public spaces
• establishing community or volunteer groups to work on different parts of community safety, for example - family support groups, safety audit teams, reporting vandalism and graffiti to council
• giving young people things to do - school activities, recreation, community projects, for example - public murals, vegetable gardens - youth forums, youth spaces, mentoring programs, for example - Big brother or Big sister
• council developing public education and awareness campaigns.

Understanding community safety responsibilities

Community safety is made up of many different elements and everyone in the community has a part to play in helping make the community a safer place.

It is important that everyone involved in developing goals and strategies to improve community safety understands and agrees to their responsibilities. For example:

• council’s responsibilities:
  • showing leadership
  • creating and maintaining safe public spaces
  • working with other government agencies and community stakeholders to improve community safety
• government agencies’ responsibilities:
  • policing
  • magistrates courts
  • child safety
  • parole and probation services
  • aged care
  • family support services
  • education and school activities
• community members’ and groups’ responsibilities:
  • justice group activities
  • showing leadership and modelling positive behaviours
  • taking part in family or parent support groups
  • joining women’s and men’s support groups
  • supporting young people in education and recreation activities
  • telling council about problem spots or damage to public infrastructure.

Further information

Department of the Premier and Cabinet – Building safer communities: a crime prevention manual for Queensland

Queensland Police Service – Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) guidelines for Queensland – Safety audit programme

Local Government Association of Queensland – Creating safe spaces: Local Governments responding to community safety and crime prevention in public space

Cairns Regional Council – Cairns Community Safety Program