Police forces across the country, including the Prince George RCMP, seem to be throwing in the towel when it comes to investigating minor crimes.
Vandalism and other property crimes, as well as public nuisance charges, appear to be taking a back seat to more serious crimes, particularly ones that involve violence. This is hardly a surprise. When there’s too much to do and not enough people and time to do it, organizations and employees prioritize. In this case, police resources are best devoted to dangerous crimes, rather than inconvenient ones.
It’s a smart short-term approach but it brings long-term problems with it. The broken windows theory to community policing argues that the lack of response to minor crime fosters more crime. Broken windows left broken signal to offenders that no one cares, therefore encouraging more broken windows. Fixed broken windows and vandals charged with breaking them discourages minor crimes. While this 40-year-old theory is hardly perfect (and its authors stress it does not condone “zero-tolerance” policing), it reeks of common sense and has some impressive real-world results behind it.
If the broken windows approach was implemented in downtown Prince George, would the problems get better? The theory and the social science behind it say yes. Safe and clean downtown streets and buildings encourage more residents to visit them and the businesses that operate there. That extra traffic further drives minor criminals away.
Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris has suggested a three-tier policing plan that could implement broken windows in a meaningful and cost-effective way. Leave the serious policing to the higher-paid (and armed) officers while bringing in lower-paid uniformed but unarmed public safety officers to handle things like minor crimes, non-violent people with mental health and/or addiction issues, foot and bike patrols, wellness and property checks, and so on. These officers would have RCMP support and health and social services support as needed. Call it kinder, gentler policing.
It's worth some serious consideration by all levels of government because the current approach clearly isn’t working.
