Today's session (12 September 2016)

Hi everyone

Today we welcomed Sergeant Jonno Westrupp from the Porirua Police.

Jonno is part of the community crime prevention team based in Waitangirua, where he supervises a team of six officers. The team’s job is to prevent crime from happening. A typical day in Porirua may include assaults, fights, thefts, domestics, etc. By preventing crime, Jonno and his team are freeing up Police resources for other tasks.

Jonno’s motivation to join the Police came from a desire to work in the ‘real world’. He wants to help people and solve people problems.

Jonno introduced us to SARA, a four-stage problem solving model used by his team. For Jonno, a problem is something that keeps happening and needs an intervention to stop it. The SARA model consists of scan, analysis, response and assessment.

Scan – Collect information as it relates to VLO (victims, location, offenders). VLO is the ‘crime triangle’ which reflects the three common features in every police situation.

Analysis – Develop understanding by looking for patterns and crucial indicators. Jonno says, “You can’t fight something you don’t understand”.

Response – Determine what should be done. There may be different responses for victims, locations and offenders.

Assessment – Relate the end point to the starting point to see how effective the response was.

We then tried a hypothetical situation involving break-ins in a busy carpark. Jonno outlined the situation and we asked questions of him until we found out enough information to form our response(s) for victims, location and offenders. We discovered that …

* Cars were being broken into in places where the surveillance cameras didn’t operate

* Only unlocked cars were targeted

* Only lose change and readily convertible goods were being taken

* Break-ins occurred during lunchtime

* Offenders were school children

* Offenders spent money on cannabis

Out responses were …

* Victims – Lock cars; Don’t leave valuables inside cars; Watch for suspicious behaviour

* Location – Needs surveillance camera coverage of blind spots; Signage to warn victims and offenders; Security during high-risk times

* Offenders – Work with school; Close down tinny house; Rehab / counselling.

Jonno noted that we need to use all responses (not just one or two) in order to make a real impression. If we just told people to lock their cars then we haven’t dealt with the cannabis suppliers or the children out of school.

The SARA model and VLO help us to build crime prevention design in urban design. For example, public toilets are now placed in prominent and well-lit locations where they are visible to the road. One example in Porirua even has a coffee shop on other side!

Jonno then talked about the Wahi Pai (“Special Place”) project for the Porirua city centre. This project is about ‘being safe and feeling safe’ by changing public perceptions. Jonno’s team focussed on three areas for this project …

* Retail shoplifting (inside shops)

* Public place violence (outside shops)

* Perception of safety (public feeling)

Jonno then talked a little bit about each of these areas.

Example 1: Retail shoplifting

Theft from retail premises in the Porirua retail area of the CBD.

1. Scan: Jonno focussed on three supermarkets as his sample and he looked for patterns in age, gender, time of day, commodities taken, means of concealment, security response and judicial outcomes. He reviewed prosecutions and talked to supermarket staff and management.

2. Analysis: Jonno analysed the information that he had gathered and he looked for common themes. Among other things Jonno noted that …

* Most items stolen were of small value. This meant that judges didn’t impose high penalties on those caught (punishment can’t be out of proportion to the crime) and Police involvement was out-of-proportion to the result.

* Items taken were low value impulse items (not food basics for survival).

* Supermarket staff waited until the crime was committed and then contacted Police (‘apprehension’ mind-set).

3. Response: Jonno developed a set of responses which addressed victim, location and offenders. With regard to the supermarkets (victims), he recommended that the supermarkets develop a preventative mind-set (e.g. if you see someone acting suspiciously then approach them and stop the crime before it happens). He also encouraged the supermarkets to use trespass orders where appropriate (empowerment). This strategy involves some training and communication with supermarket staff. (Other possibly strategies might have included cardboard cut-outs of Police, signs warning of camera surveillance, etc.)

4. Assessment: Jonno found that the responses resulted in 32% fewer Police callouts to supermarkets between 2014 and 2015. There was also a 100% increase in trespass notices issues by supermarkets. This indicated that his responses were having a positive result.

Example 2: Public places

Safety in public areas in the Porirua CBD.

1. Scan: Jonno looked at assaults in the Porirua business area as his measure of public safety in public places.

2. Analysis: The data showed that Asian victims were over-represented in the statistics and that all of these victims were CBD workers of business owners. The data also showed that 9 out of 15 offenders were Maori male teenagers who had left school.

3. Response: Jonno instituted a shoplifting framework initiative with the Porirua Chamber of Commerce (aimed at the victims) and with the Maori Truancy Officers (aimed at the offenders).

4. Assessment: There was a 52% decrease in reported crime (decrease in victimisation of the target group). There was also a 37% decrease in teenage offending between 2014 and 2015, fewer truancy referrals and 24% decrease in assaults in CBD.

Example 3: Perceptions of safety

Data from 2014 showed that 87% of people felt safe during day and only 31% felt safe at night in the city. Jonno noted that isolation tends to make people feel unsafe so the Police have been using social media and other avenues to engage with the public and to tell people about what they are doing. The Police have also increased their involvement in activities such as the harbour clean-up.

[Special note: All of the above data is from the notes that I took during Jonno’s presentation. I haven’t asked him to check my session notes for accuracy so please treat this material as an indicative record (rather than authoritative one)]

Looking ahead, please remember that Assignment 2 is due this week on Friday 16 September. We will also need to organise your presentation times for Assignment 2, which are scheduled for Monday 31 October and Monday 7 November 2016 (during class time).

Next Monday, I will need your calculations for the Great Jellybean Challenge and I will ask each person to explain how they made their calculation. We will also do a class calculation (by averaging everyone’s individual calculations) to see how close this gets us to the actual figure.

See you all next Monday!

Cheers

Phil