Tag: safety

From mistrust to dialogue: essential training session from RÉSAL, coordinated by ICPC

As part of the development of capacity-building activities for the Réseau d’échange et de soutien aux actions locales (RÉSAL) for the fall of 2025, ICPC, as a coordinating member, organized an in-person training session on October 15.

Funded by the City of Montreal’s Prévention Montréal programme, this event focused on ‘Youth and the police: overcoming mistrust, building trust.’ It was delivered by Victor Armony, Professor in the Department of Sociology at UQAM | Université du Québec à Montréal and researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Diversity and Democracy.

At the heart of the training:

✔ Questioning the dynamics of trust

✔ Exploring current challenges and avenues for change

✔ Reaffirming the importance of including young people in any discussion about safety and living together

Why did this training session make a difference?

It is an important step towards approaching issues in a more humane and inclusive manner, rooted in local realities. Trust cannot be decreed; it must be built through listening, respect and a shared future.

We warmly thank Victor Armony and all the participants for their stimulating discussions and insightful reflections!

The ICPC published its local safety audit for the agglomeration of Longueuil

An increasing rate of crimes against the person was observed in the Longueuil agglomeration between 2018 and 2022. Also, over the same period, it was noted that young women were the most numerous victims of crime in private spaces, and that young people aged 12 to 17 accounted for the highest number of victims in schools. 

These examples of analyzed observations of crime in the agglomeration have encouraged the need to strengthen collaboration between the various local stakeholders, such as the police, public institutions and community organizations, to put in place coordinated and effective prevention measures. Through the Government of Canada’s Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF), contributed in part to the Government of Quebec under an agreement, the City of Longueuil appointed the ICPC to support it in conducting a local safety audit. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of safety among youth in the Longueuil agglomeration and to encourage community participation in safety issues.  

Achieved through a collaborative approach favouring positive and sustainable transformation as well as through space syntax approach, the report provides a quantitative analysis based on police data provided by the Urban agglomeration of Longueuil Police Service. The report also presents a qualitative analysis, which was carried out in collaboration with local stakeholders, involving consultative activities with young people in the territory. Finally, the study features concrete recommendations and solutions, appropriate and adapted to local realities, to strengthen and create safer public spaces. 

The report is divided into 4 sections:  

  • An analytical framework, which lays the foundation for the study, addressing urban safety and the space syntax. It also points out the limitations of using police data and quantitative analysis;   
  • A portrait of crime in living spaces, which provides an overview of crime in the Longueuil agglomeration, detailing alleged perpetrators and victims by crime location, relationships between victims and perpetrators, and the temporality and geography of the crimes, etc.;  
  • The results of the on-site survey, such as risk factors and the feeling of safety in public spaces in the agglomeration, exploring issues relating to social cohabitation, the school environment, family life and parenting, cyber-violence, etc.;  
  • Conclusions and possible solutions, in collaboration with youths and local stakeholders, to improve safety, strengthen human and financial resources, coordinate organizational structures, and develop protection strategies for private and public spaces, such as schools and cyberspace.

Read the report here (available in French only)

Read the press release (available in French only)

The ICPC in the media!

On April 3, 2024, Michelle Côté, scientific advisor and head of the ICPC research team, was interviewed on Qub Radio by journalist Benoit Dutrizac to discuss the safety of girls, women and the elderly in private and public spaces in Montreal.

Although a considerable amount of progress in terms of support for women has been made in recent years, one of the issues discussed was the importance of implementing prevention strategies for women and teenage girls in light of the rise in acts of intimidation and violence in various boroughs of the city.   

It is in this context, that in 2023, in response to the various forms of violence affecting girls, women, and the elders in the borough of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, in Montreal, the ICPC has been mandated to conduct a local safety audit to provide an overview  of the situation in the borough as well as to make recommendations on initiatives that could be implemented to improve the current situation.

To listen to the interview (in French)

Read the report here (synthesized version in French) 

Read the report here (complete version in French) 

The ICPC has been mandated by the City of Terrebonne for a local safety audit

In collaboration with the ICPC, the City of Terrebonne, in Canada, has undertaken an initiative to strengthen the perception of safety and the well-being of its citizens. 

This approach is part of a broader effort to develop concrete strategies and actions in favor of the safety of the municipality’s residents. With more than 1.3 million dollars granted by the Quebec government’s Fund to Build Safer Communities, the consultations and discussion groups conducted since January 18 with specific communities, as well as the upcoming consultation with the City’s partners for the development of an action plan scheduled in April 2024, reflect Terrebonne’s commitment to building a safe and inclusive environment for all. An online survey taking place in February and March is also part of the elements that will allow us to properly document the security issues in this city. 

For more information, we invite you to read the article in French “Terrebonne mènera une consultation afin de connaître la perception des différentes communautés au sujet de la sécurité” on CFNJ (published February 9, 2024): https://bitly.ws/3dimZ  

Chronicle of the ICPC on France 24

The ICPC was invited to participate in a science segment on the France 24 channel which focused on the knowledge of Canadian ways to detect and prevent the risks of delinquency among young children.

In this interview, Anne Vandelle, analyst and coordinator of activities and projects at ICPC, focuses on the work that can be done around a set of protective factors in young children. These can have a positive impact on children, specifically on their safety and sense of security. Through a few examples of programs, we highlight the importance of offsetting risk factors with protective factors, such as physical and mental health, and the feeling of of safety, in order to prevent the risk of delinquency from childhood.    

To watch the interview “Crime prevention: Scientific methods help protect minors and their families”:  https://bit.ly/3h9Gy5f