Red Deer’s crime prevention co-ordinator could become a full-time staff position.
The city’s Community Services Directorate is recommending the six-year-old contract position become a permanent job. Adding the position to the payroll would cost $92,810 in salary and benefits this year.
Establishing a crime prevention co-ordinator was one of the recommendations of a 2005 Crime Prevention and Policing Study. Up until the end of 2011, the position was funded year-to-year out of the policing reserve. The co-ordinator has worked with the city’s Crime Prevention Advisory Committee and has helped develop community education programs, a graffiti strategy and a crime-free multi-housing project.
City manager Craig Curtis does not support bringing the position “in-house”, telling council during budget discussions on Friday he preferred a “new approach.”
Curtis pointed out that the city is undertaking a safety charter that is expected to provide a strategy for dealing with all aspects of public safety. The role of a crime prevention co-ordinator will be reviewed as part of that work. Some communities have opted for arm’s length community groups with their own fundraising capacity to undertake some crime prevention initiatives, he offered as an example of other approaches.
To undertake the safety charter, the budget includes a funding request for $410,000. Of that, $110,000 would be used for planning this year and $300,000 would be used to provide ongoing funding to address some of the 43 recommendations that came out of last July’s Crime Prevention and Policing Study Strategic Update and Policing Services Model Review.
The money could go towards new police officers or other crime prevention initiatives.
Curtis called the $300,000 a “starting point” and said council may be asked to approve more funding in coming years.