Mental health - COVID's impact

Did mental health reports increase during COVID? 

Tarah Hodgkinson 

We talk about liveability in SafeGrowth a lot. A liveable community is a healthy one. And that includes mental health. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the mental health of our communities and how we live our lives. While we saw an international decline in most crime types during the initial stages of social restrictions (starting in March 2020), we know less about how these restrictions impacted police-reported mental health. 

There are countless articles and reports raising concerns about the short and long-term impacts on mental health as a result of COVID-19 social restrictions. Most claim that mental health deteriorated across the board, but impacts were particularly acute for disabled, marginalized groups, and women. 

LESSONS FROM CANADA

Furthermore, from Nova Scotia on one coast to British Columbia on the other, there have been calls for increases in Canadian police personnel to respond to the increasing demand for mental health services. In a recent study we published in the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, we sought to determine if the concerns about mental health were warranted in the Canadian context and if calls for additional resources were necessary. 

The pandemic affected everyone -
A new Canadian study examines mental health impacts

We were able to examine 13 jurisdictions in Canada using a Statistics Canada special survey of police-reported mental health-related incidents. Surprisingly, we didn’t find major increases. 

Rather, police-reported mental health-related incidents were generally stable. More specifically, we found that suicide attempts and incidents generally declined. Apprehensions under the Mental Health Act (a danger to themselves or others), were generally stable with significant increases in only 4 out of 13 jurisdictions. Other mental health-related calls were also generally stable with only 3 jurisdictions seeing a significant increase. 

Counter to widespread concern about the impact of social restrictions, the police-reported mental health-related data shows an unexpected resilience in Canada. When you explore the psychological literature on mental health, this finding is consistent across other contexts.  

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

First, it means we may be more resilient than we actually thought. Second, it means that calls for increasing mental health resources to police may be unwarranted.

This is an important point because police are usually not the best equipped to deal with mental health-related incidents. Indeed, because of the de-institutionalization of mental health facilities and cuts to social resources and preventative measures, police have become the only responder left. This isn’t fair. Mental health is not a crime! Police should not be the ones to respond. 

Mental health is not a police issue.
The mentally ill deserve treatment, not prison.

Keep in mind that even though mental health-related incidents are stable, we still have a lot of work to do. And that work shouldn’t be reactive and enforcement-based. Rather, we need to demand our governments invest in evidence-based solutions like basic income, housing, social services, and wrap-around supports. 

These solutions need better funding and neighbourhood-level support to ensure they are appropriate and reach those who need it most. Neighborhood-level capacity-building is precisely what occurs within SafeGrowth programming. We believe this is how we rebuild the kinds of 21st-century neighbourhoods that will help us stay resilient and healthy. 

A desert Summit in Palm Springs - COVID finally eases

2022 SafeGrowth Summit hotel - Hilton Palm Springs

by Gregory Saville

Over the past 7 years, the SafeGrowth Network has met annually at our training Summits to teach each other new concepts and tactics arising through our community-building and crime prevention programs. It’s a time for us to recharge our batteries and recuperate in the company of like-minded, funny, and intensely talented, people (Pina colada’s served with pink umbrellas under palm trees comes to mind). 

We invite others outside the network to participate in our Summits, such as community groups, journalists, business associations, housing groups, police, academics, and other urban design professionals. Then we set aside time to give back to the community in the form of public training, presentations, or workshops. 

All that came to a halt with the COVID pandemic relegating us to online Zoom meetings – a distant substitute for sharing good food, relaxing at the beach, or laughing in person. Finally, after a long wait following our Cancun, Mexico Summit in 2019, we had our first face-to-face in three years in Palm Springs, California last week. 

One of the Palm Springs pathways we examined
during our walking audits

PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

Over the years we have partnered with neighborhood associations, national non-profits, and crime prevention organizations. This year we were delighted when the Palm Springs police department –  in the form of Chief Andy Mills and Lt. William Hutchinson – offered to sponsor our meeting and participate in our 2022 SafeGrowth Summit. 

Palm Springs police chief Andy Mills introduces the
SafeGrowth team to community members

Ten members of our team, (five more virtually) and a half dozen members of the police service, gathered at the Hilton Palm Springs Hotel, the police training facility, and on the downtown streets of the city, to discuss, analyze, audit, and brainstorm different ways to bring safety and livability to neighborhoods of the future. 

SafeGrowth team member Anna Brassard describing SafeGrowth

Mateja Mihinjac outlines a part of model to residents

Harry Tapia explains Livability Academies 

Among other topics, our Summit themes included:

• a new method for community engagement, 
• different ways to review crime trends in Palm Springs,
• next steps for the Livability Academy status in Philadelphia,
• situational awareness during site visits,
• SafeGrowth progress in Sweden following the 2022 H22 Smart City Expo,
• A review of current trends in planning theory,
• geography of crime theories and community crime theories related to SafeGrowth.

We discussed the situation in Palm Springs and we ran two public sessions on two different days to introduce residents and business owners to different parts of the SafeGrowth model. We gathered 40 community and business residents for presentations on Livability Academies and other programs in SafeGrowth. We toured their city with them so they could show us their concerns and hopes for the future. The local media was terrific in providing accurate and timely reporting on our week in their lovely city. 

THE END OF COVID

Work retreats can be dull and dry affairs, but beautiful Palm Springs did not disappoint with its eclectic street furniture, art, and statues, along with some of the best mid-century modern architecture in the nation (Frank Sinatra and the rat pack lived here). Along the way, we hiked the nearby mountains, went up the gondola, spent time at the weekly street market, and were entertained by the Denver band MOOSGH at the Hotel Zoso. 

There is no replacement for face-to-face encounters when it comes to SafeGrowth and other forms of community development. It’s great to see the other side of the pandemic.

Best wishes to the many wonderful residents and professionals in Palm Springs, especially Chief Andy Mills and Lt. William Hutchinson. Thanks for the hospitality.  

Quality-of-life policing - re-dressing broken windows?

With the increase in street disorder and homelessness, NYPD has
reinstated the controversial "Quality-of-Life" policing strategy

by Mateja Mihinjac

Over the past few years, there has been a growing focus on improving liveability and quality of life within neighbourhoods and cities. This includes our conceptualisation of 3rd Gen CPTED – Third Generation Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) – a theory capitalizing on the concept of liveability that embeds safety from crime and fear.

One potential manifestation of this liveability trend translates into policing with an increasing emphasis on quality-of-life enforcement where individuals are targeted for minor offences and misdemeanours that contribute to crime and disorder. 

QUALITY-OF-LIFE POLICING IN NEW YORK CITY

Quality-of-life policing has been most prominent in New York City, which is undergoing an interesting change under the leadership of new Mayor Eric Adams.

After years of a downward trend in arrests and incarcerations for misdemeanour offences, stats for these activities have started to increase owing to a new stricter enforcement of so-called petty crimes. The petty crimes include fare evasion, petty theft, jumping subway turnstiles, sleeping on a park bench, taking up two seats on the subway, public drinking, public urination, dice games, and similar. According to reports, arrests for these offences have jumped by 25% between January and June of this year.

Nearly 90% of those arrested were people of colour.

This is the first increase since 2014 and the first significant increase since 2007 when the stop and frisk practice was ruled unconstitutional. 

Street incivilities, like graffiti, have returned to New York City

Yet the NYPD maintains that New Yorkers desire, if not demand, addressing the quality-of-life issues. They justify this with a poll showing three-quarters of respondents stated they perceive crime as a very serious issue. 

Of course, the survey simply reflects public perceptions of crime and quality of life, not what specifically the community would like done about crime and quality of life. To translate that into quality-of-life policing would seem to commit the error of what policing expert Professor Herman Goldstein called the “means over ends syndrome”, the process whereby police conflate the ends with the means and place more emphasis on the policing operational tactics than on effective solutions that actually resolve the problem at hand.

Quality-of-life policing enforces minor offences,
like littering and dogs-off-leash

BROKEN WINDOWS POLICING 2.0

Some argue this new era of quality-of-life policing is simply the return of broken windows/order maintenance policing, a policing practice that received much criticism for being unethical and ineffective. 

Its critics argue that quality-of-life policing practices are abusive, they harass predominantly individuals of colour and criminalise people for being poor.

Moreover, in the era of aiming to re-establish positive police-community relationships following all the recent police-community crises (the protest movement after George Floyd’s death; the defund the police movement), it would seem that more aggressive and confrontational policing practices may undermine these efforts for positive changes.

Like residents in all cities around the world, people in New York City
desire a livable city with places that are healthy, fun, and safe

THE FUTURE

My fear is that returning to more repressive policing tactics could also increase the gap between prevention strategies such as CPTED and the disadvantaged communities that gain the most from effective and low-cost practices.

As recently as last year CPTED was vilified by some critics for alleged discriminatory practices when they wrongfully conflated CPTED with broken windows policing. 

We certainly do not need another “prevention” strategy that causes more harm than good – especially since it already did that once. I hope it does not come to that.

Personal journey into CPTED - A planner's story

Marriott Bessborough hotel - historical landmark in downtown Saskatoon, Canada

by Elisabeth Miller

As a SafeGrowth advocate and senior urban planner in one of Canada’s major cities, Elisabeth Miller was one of the first Canadian planners to apply CPTED to her everyday work. She is an ICCP-certified CPTED professional with the International CPTED Association and an executive board member of that organization. She is an author of the book SafeGrowth, and a consultant to cities across Canada, the US, and Australia. She helped establish Saskatoon as the first city in Canada to adopt both CPTED and SafeGrowth as administrative policy. This is her story.

I am always curious when I meet other CPTED professionals or practitioners, what their background is, and how they arrived at incorporating CPTED into their professional work. CPTED, especially Second Generation and Third Generation CPTED, speaks to my heart and I can see how proper and inclusive application of CPTED would be helpful to any community. 

I first heard of CPTED at a British Columbia conference about 25 years ago in the mid-90s. It sounded very interesting and an excellent way to help make my community safe. Shortly after this conference in 1996, I attended a 5-day training on CPTED, a course that taught both 1st and 2nd Generation CPTED. I was hooked!

Elisabeth Miller - A personal story from her 25-year history
with urban planning and CPTED

My planning experience up to this point included neighbourhood planning and working directly with communities. Prior to that, I worked on municipal Concept and Sector plans, Land Use and Zoning Bylaws, and other policy related projects – activities that will be familiar to most urban planners. I believe I had a good variety of planning experiences.

The CPTED class was a very interesting combination of police (mostly police) with a few planners thrown in. It offered lectures, group work, site visits, buzz groups, and other problem-based learning activities to situate the learning in our brains. It was a very intense training environment – I loved every minute of it!

Once trained, my task was clear: Implementation!

And THAT was a big deal.

IMPLEMENTATION IS THE KEY

Fortunately, I had a very supportive manager. He also saw the benefit of including CPTED in the way we planned our city and encouraged me to include it wherever I could. So, I included it everywhere! I did not ask, I just included it and decided if the powers that be pushed back then I would deal with it then. 

I added knowledge of CPTED to job descriptions, reviewed plans and commented even if I wasn’t asked. I crafted an “elevator speech” to use on senior management and City Councillors whenever I had a captured audience in the elevator, and I brought various departments to work together to review civic projects.  The idea was, I help you and you help me.

Today, CPTED designs show up throughout Saskatoon
- in this case at the downtown transit center

Working together worked well for all. We decided it might be time to make this a formal part of a planning review, but how should we do this? It meant working with all the different departments that would be involved or who would benefit from a CPTED review. As a corporation, the City of Saskatoon made a conscious decision to start with our own civic projects before moving on to the private sector. This was a very interesting and challenging process.

I interviewed every departmental, divisional, or section manager responsible for projects that would benefit from the application of the principles of CPTED. That was almost a full-time job for a few months. Some were informed, others worried about added time, and there was a small group that really did not care. It was all part of the story that I uncovered. The next step was to get the private developers on board!

We met with local land developers to ensure they understood the process and that it would not cost them more time or money. That led to the establishment of The City of Saskatoon CPTED Review Committee.

Saskatoon's design guideline book provided for urban designers

In 2008 we created a formal administrative policy identifying what would be reviewed, who would do the reviews, and when they would be reviewed. The whole journey took years to accomplish and nowadays the Neighbourhood Safety section looks after the CPTED Review Committee as well as a number of other programs and activities that incorporate the principles of CPTED. 

Over the past 20 years, we managed to offer CPTED (and now SafeGrowth) training to over 400 staff members and others from the community. I believe that Saskatoon today is a safer city due to the work done by the Neighbourhood Safety section and the incorporation of CPTED and SafeGrowth into the planning process.

So, to my professional planning colleagues and other urban designers, the next time you notice someone excited to find out you are a planner at a CPTED activity or conference, it’s probably me. Say hello!

A terrible loss - mass murder in James Smith Cree Nation

Unfolding news coverage of the Saskatchewan mass murder
- headline from screenshot  

by Tarah Hodgkinson

In the wake of the tragic mass murder in James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan, we would be remiss not to take this time to offer our heartfelt condolences to this community. 

On Sunday night, two men went on a stabbing spree, killing 10 people and harming over 15 others in the small community just east of Prince Albert. This is one of Canada’s worst mass murders and a terrifying experience for this First Nations community. 

Police found one suspect dead while the other remains at large and suspected to be somewhere in Regina at the time of posting this blog.

The Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan contains a number of First Nations
communities populated by North American indigenous peoples.
James Smith Cree Nation is one of those communities.

This incident is absolutely heartbreaking. Not only for the community, but for the country as we wait for the suspect to be caught and for justice for the victims’ families. 

Saskatchewan is a special place for all of us in SafeGrowth. We have been working with the city of Saskatoon for over 15 years building the SafeGrowth network. Mateja and I worked with SafeGrowth advocate and senior Saskatoon planner Elisabeth Miller in that city’s planning department. 

We have partnered with North Battleford on their crime issues and on building community cohesion.  Many of us have spent time working throughout the province and connecting with the wonderful and committed people who live there. 

Saskatchewan is well known for its beautiful scenery and
spectacular northern lights. Mass murders are extremely rare.
The last mass murder was over 50 years ago.

That is why tragic news emerging from the James Smith Cree Nation reservation, a community only a hundred miles north of the city of Saskatoon resonates with members of our team. We have not been to the James Smith Cree Nation, but we know that the pain and suffering from this mass murder must be devastating to those communities and the victims.

TOGETHERNESS IN TRAGEDY

We have written extensively in this blog about how public events and celebrations, like farmer’s markets and fireworks, can bring people together. We have documented the cohesive power of local events and community markets and gardens.

We have described how exceptional events can mobilize people, such as the New Zealand earthquake in 2011 or during extreme weather events.

And so, we know that this devastating event is going to have the same impact as other collective events. It will bring the people of Saskatchewan together. Together to find the assailant and fight for justice. Together to mourn and rebuild. 

And we will be with them. Every step of the way. 

POSTSCRIPT

A final sad note a day after we posted this blog: News from police in Saskatchewan report today that the remaining suspect in this mass murder was arrested and transported to hospital where he died from "medical distress".  

Acoustic Gunshot Detection Tech - the good, the bad, & the ugly

by Mateja Mihinjac

I’ve recently come across a report titled “ShotSpotter and the Misfires of Gunshot Detection Technology” by the STOP Surveillance Technology Project.

The report is extremely critical of this Acoustic Gunshot Detection Technology (AGDT) suggesting it offers little operational value for the police and it can prove detrimental with serious ethical caveats.

How bad is this technology really? 

SHOTSPOTTER®

ShotSpotter Inc. has been on the market for 20 years and it is the leading AGDT on the market used by over 200 police jurisdictions worldwide, with at least 130 of those from the US. 

ShotSpotter prides itself with the slogan: “Right place, right time. Precision policing solutions that help save lives, solve cases and deter crime – making communities safer.”

AGDT technology starts with microphones mounted above
the city on buildings and other tall structures

ShotSpotter combines narrow AI with human experts to identify and locate gunshot events and their location in the neighbourhoods where it’s been installed. Its detection system comprises microphones placed on streetlights, buildings and utility poles, and audio software that compares the sounds with prior gunshot events in its database. The system triangulates the location of the sound that is further reviewed by a human sound analyst who alerts the police should they determine the sound actually derives from a gunshot. 

THE GOOD

Company reports, and some technology reviews, offer that it detects shootings that would go unreported, locates gunshots for quick police response, and improves the arrest rates of suspects. This all leads to preventing gun violence and enhanced neighbourhood safety.

THE BAD

The evidence suggests that many of the above claims can be disputed. For example, while quasi-experimental studies indicated over 80% accuracy in detection and triangulation, other studies show the AGDT works poorly in detecting gunshots and, instead, it suffers from what researchers call “false positives” (it gets it wrong). 

Chicago’s Office of Inspector General review found that only 9.1% of probable gunshot alerts out of 50,000 records over a 17-month period resulted in evidence of a gun-related offence.

While we sleep at night, it listens for gunshots from roof-mounted
listening devices - what could go wrong?

These studies conclude that AGDT may actually be ineffective and inaccurate and can thus waste police resources. None of that mentions the cost, (Chicago paid $33 million for 2 years of service).

As well, there are poor outcomes on firearm offence reduction and shooting victims’ medical outcomes two years following the installation. Thus, it did not lead to gun violence deterrence as anticipated.

Most alarming was whether ShotSpotter evidence should be used in court. The company has previously admitted to altering the records and reclassifying the sounds that were initially not detected and determined as gunshots but were later reclassified as such based on police reports. While this may be occasionally warranted, at other times it may lead to the misuse of data and misrepresentation of the evidence on the side of the law enforcement agencies.  

THE UGLY

AGDT can lead the local community to become disengaged and stop reporting gunshots because they believe the technology will handle that for them. In St Louis, for example, citizen-initiated reports of gunshots before the installation of ShotSpotter were 7 times more useful than AGDT and wasted less police time. Following the installation, citizen reports significantly decreased and decreased further when the system was expanded.  

AGDT is predominantly deployed in poorer and majority Black and Latinx neighbourhoods commonly identified as hotspots for shootings and violence. While there might be more shooting incidents in those neighbourhoods, this automatically means AGDT will detect more shooting incidents in those specific neighbourhoods rather than in other neighbourhoods where it is not deployed. This might perpetuate the problem of over-policing and racial bias in communities of colour. 

Evaluations of AGDT shows problems with "false positives"
- it turns out the city can be a noisy place

There is a similar problem with another narrow AI program called predictive policing where there are reports of racial discrimination and over-policing and the additional concern of “tech washing”.

Despite ShotSpotter’s claim that the sensors cannot record private conversations, there are increasing concerns of the microphones recording regular conversations and acting as a “massive eavesdropping device”.

In one case, such a private conversation in a public space was intercepted and admitted into evidence in a murder trial court case.

Currently, there appear to be no regulations that would prevent ShotSpotter from sharing stored audio recordings.

SafeGrowth works directly with community residents in collaboration with the police to plan their own safety strategies

SMARTER APPROACHES

After two decades, the results of AGDT implementation continue to show few positive effects. In fact, some results are detrimental to effective police work, police-community relationships and community safety.

The evidence suggests that police leaders should err on the side of caution and turn towards approaches for addressing gun-related violence that have a better track record.

One example: combining neighbourhood policing and problem-oriented policing to build police-community relationships, act proactively, and approach the problem at its core. 

Another that we obviously recommend is SafeGrowth. This blueprint for neighbourhood safety planning helps residents help themselves, in partnership with police and using the latest in crime prevention. SafeGrowth provides a platform to help address gun-related violence and other crime and safety problems. 

The documented success story in the New Orlean’s gun-violent neighbourhood of Hollygrove is only one example of how neighbours disrupted gun violence. 

Sometimes the most effective solutions are not technology, they are human-based and neighbourhood friendly. That, we believe, is a future we all want.