Celebrate Your Crime Prevention Pride!

The Celebrate Safe Communities initiative can rally your community and kick start Crime Prevention Month.

By Angela Sivak, NCPC Staff

Crime is always present, even in communities that most of us consider relatively safe. Twenty-three million Americans are victims of crime every year, and of those, 5.2 million are victims of violent crime. These are heavy prices that society shouldn’t have to pay.

Celebrate Safe Communities (CSC), which kicks off Crime Prevention Month in October, heightens the awareness of crime prevention efforts and encourages communities to get involved in preventing crime. The program, which is open for registration now, is a partnership of the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) and the National Crime Prevention Council, and it is supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the U.S. Department of Justice. CSC promotes partnerships between law enforcement and communities. According to Jeff Broderson, NCPC’s point person for Celebrate Safe Communities, CSC “is a way for the members of the community to get to know their local law enforcement and learn about how each of them is an important part of keeping themselves, their communities, and their families safe.”

The community-sponsored events that are sponsored by CSC are geared towards Americans of all ages and help people pool their efforts to make their neighborhoods safer places.

“The benefit of CSC as opposed to other celebrations is that there are no restrictions on the types of events you can have,” says Broderson. “People have put ads in the paper, done radio spots, had traditional BBQ events, held trainings for Neighborhood Watch or other crime prevention programs. Some have held community cleanup or graffiti removal days or take-back-the-street marches. Open houses at law enforcement agencies or fire houses are also popular. Basically we leave it up to the imagination of the community group and the law enforcement agency it works with.”

Broderson adds that the type of CSC event undertaken depends on the community’s needs and resources.  To encourage the participation of youth, the events often include a school assembly or contest. The events for children often include McGruff the Crime Dog. In fact, CSC events for people of all ages frequently use McGruff’s communicative powers to educate communities about the best ways to prevent crime.

NSA and NCPC are key to organizing these events. They provide planning advice, tools for educating community members of all ages, tips on recruiting community safety volunteers, kits to help build awareness through publicity, and opportunities to apply for awards that recognize outstanding CSC initiatives that prevent crime from festering in communities.

Anyone can get involved in this initiative by planning a community event. To learn how to plan an event and register local initiatives, those interested should visit the CSC website at www.celebratesafecommunities.org. Local law enforcement agencies play a vital role in designing these local CSC initiatives, yet they need participation from the community. Law enforcement agencies should look to civic organizations, youth-focused groups, business owners, religious congregations, city officials, community volunteers, and neighborhood associations to assist in creating a CSC event for their community.

According to Broderson, “The motivation behind CSC is people’s determination to improve their community’s safety. It doesn’t matter what event people plan or how they organize an event, we must reclaim our neighborhoods and ensure our community members stay safe.”