Community Policing and the Glebe
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Community policing and the Glebe
By James Kennedy
The Glebe has long been regarded as one of the city’s most vibrant and desirable communities, blending historic charm with modern conveniences. Maintaining its safety, sense of community and overall quality of life has been a priority for residents and local authorities alike. Everyone wants to feel safe in their community, and the Ottawa Police Services (OPS) community policing strategy continues to evolve to meet the unique challenges faced by the Glebe and surrounding neighborhoods.
I would like to first give an overview of where we are in the world of policing, as well as some of the current approaches to address the changing landscape. Secondly, I will discuss some of the crime trends we are seeing in the city and compare those trends with what we’re seeing in the Glebe. Finally, I will touch on what you can do as residents and business owners to help mitigate some of those trends by discussing a few Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles.
Ottawa, like many cities across Canada, is grappling with a toxic drug supply and a housing crisis. Overdose prevention services and harm-reduction programs, such as supervised consumption sites and safe-supply programs are in place, but they struggle to meet the growing demand.
This crisis is closely linked to homelessness, which has surged across North America due to substance abuse and to a lack of affordable housing and mental-health supports. Shelter and support services are overwhelmed, leaving many without stable housing unable to access to the help they need.
Efforts to address the crisis in this city include the increased investment in affordable and supportive housing, the further implementation of Housing First initiatives, the expansion of harm-reduction and drop-in services, as well as improvements and access to mental health and addictions care.
We are seeing increases in property crime across Ottawa, including in the Glebe. Property crimes include things such as thefts of motor vehicles, thefts of bicycles, shoplifting and mischief to property. While crimes against the person and other miscellaneous crimes have remained stable over the last six years, crimes against property have not.
If you would like further insight into the types of crimes and trends we are seeing in your neighbourhood, you can check out our Community Safety Data Portal at data.ottawapolice.ca. Our data analytics team has put together open datasets for the public to explore at their convenience. You can see our Crime Map and our Analytics dashboards that chart crimes like car thefts, bike thefts or overdose calls from 2018 to 2023.
To counteract the trends we are seeing, I think it’s important to discuss Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. CPTED focuses on the management of the built and natural environments. The idea is that if we can properly design and use the built environment, we can reduce the incident of crime altogether.
I will focus on a few core principles: natural surveillance, natural control access and a few second-generation CPTED principles – social cohesion and connectivity.
Natural surveillance is the concept of providing clear sightlines and visibility to decrease the ability for criminals to commit crimes. This includes trimming trees and hedges as well as lighting pathways or installing motion-activated lights around your property. This can be further enhanced with mechanical surveillance, which is installing smart-home cameras or doorbells on your property.
Natural control access decreases crime opportunity by creating clearly defined boundaries and restricting movement for unwanted visitors. This includes the installation of fences, low walls or hedges along with locks and alarms.
Finally, there are the concepts of social cohesion and connectivity. Social cohesion refers to the connectedness of residents. When there is more social cohesion, residents participate in community life as well as provide environments for neighbours to build relationships. Connectivity is the idea that communities should provide the opportunity to create partnerships with external support networks. Those networks could be like the ones you may already have with your city councillor, the Glebe BIA or your community officer.
I believe social cohesion and connectivity are the key principles that have led this neighbourhood to be such a desirable and active community. As engaged residents, please continue to report any incidents online via our online reporting website at ottawapolice.ca/onlinereporting or through our police reporting unit at (613) 236-1222 ext 7300. These reports are pivotal to the continued collection and tracking of data at OPS as well as to the effective allocation of our resources.
If you are a resident or small business owner, you can request a free CPTED audit at CPTED@ottawapolice.ca.
If you would like to discuss any of this information further or have any other concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at kennedyj@ottawapolice.ca.
Constable James Kennedy is an Ottawa community police officer.
