Police head suggests project for Rotary

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 4

Police head suggests project for Rotary

PA Wellington Funding a two-year study on repeated offending would be worthy project for Rotary in the fight against crime, says the Commissioner of Police, Mr Malcolm Churches. The organisation needed to “get its hands dirty,” he told Rotary International’s annual conference in Wellington. Serious violence was committed by a small section of the community who, in spite of feeling the weight of most sanctions available under law, persisted in reoffending. Patterns of criminal offending had not had the benefit of quality, indepth research, Mr Churches said. He and criminologists believed a two-year study of recidivism would help find remedies to repetitive violence. But, he said, “one suspects such a study would swallow $lOO,OOO without a second glance.”

As a national Rotary project, however, it would nave long-term benefits. No Rotary district could boast an environment free of repeated crime. When being invited to address the conference, Mr Churches said he was asked how a responsible organisation like Rotary could assist the authorities deal with the rising rate of crime.

Funding such a study was one way Rotary could help. Another, he said, was to provide leadership and organisation in a project to combat community fear of crime. The main thrust of an experiment conducted in Baltimore, in the United States, called Cope — citi-zen-orientated police enforcement — was to fight fear.

There was a disproportionate level of fear about crime. People were bombarded by crime which, for commercial reasons, was rarely balanced by good news.

Police administrators were also far from blameless in heightening public fears, as they had a duty to pass on information and to justify requests for a bigger slice of taxpayers’ money.

Fear of crime was a dangerous catalyst for apathy, said Mr Churches. “If people get numb enough they won’t report

crime in the belief that nothing can be done anyway. When it gets to that point the criminals really are winning,” he said.

Studies showed that fear of crime was not directly related to crime levels — the older people became the less likely they were to be victims, yet they became more fearful. Most fear came from the experiences of others.

In Baltimore, the police formed a unit and went among the public to find out what was frightening people.

The survey showed greater-than-average levels of juvenile offending, lack of recreational facilities, poor street lighting and, most significantly, no community leadership.