Crime

Sub Categories: Crime

The Community Engagement Team

The Community Engagement Team (CET) is a unique, business-led outreach team that provides rapid response support and intervention for non-violent crisis situations and traditional street outreach services in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The CET partners with Toronto Police to divert vulnerable individuals from the criminal justice system and into local community support programs.

Public Safety Initiatives

Clean and Safe has long played a central role in place management, but public safety has taken on increasing importance amidst the protracted return to work, increases in homelessness, and efforts to square law enforcement practices with demands for social justice.

A Tale of Three Cities Fueling Recovery

This presentation focused on three cities (San Francisco, Berkeley, and Los Angeles) and how they identified challenges the pandemic presented to their downtowns and strategies being implemented to fuel the recovery. Challenges include the increase of homelessness and violence related to the civil unrest; lack of pedestrian traffic and downtown workers; and the role safety, security and cleaning played during the pandemic. Learn what strategies were implemented and positive outcomes achieved. 

Advancing Places: Public Safety Roundtable 

Public safety has always been at the forefront of the work of UPMOs. The reality and perception of crime in dense urban districts continue to impact the return of workers and vibrancy in the urban core. IDA is inventorying best practices and trends and will publish findings from this discussion and other data collection. Participants will be split into breakout rooms to maximize discussion time. Please note: the breakout rooms of this discussion were not recorded. 

Advancing Places: Successful Ambassador Teams

As districts enter into the open-for-business phase, it’s important to know the types of services that downtown and neighborhood districts should consider offering to local stakeholders. From safety and security to hospitality and outreach, district service programs can ensure businesses, residents and visitors are taken care of. Join this webinar and hear from two practitioners who are offering different types of programs and how services are unique to each districts’ needs.

Advancing Places: Graffiti and Murals

Unwelcome graffiti can significantly affect the perceptions of cleanliness and safety in a district. Questions surrounding who is physically responsible and economically liable for removal can cause confusion among urban place leaders, business owners and local government officials. This session will explore how three graffiti removal programs were established and maintained to positively impact their district.

Project Spotlight: Technology in Your Community

Learn about data driven and predictive urban management and public safety. Working in partnership with global security service provider Securitas SA, the Voortrekker Road CID has built and managed its own centralized control center through which all reporting is processed into a powerful response database. In Downtown DC the BID worked with Cube 84 to integrate the BID’s Salesforce-based database with 311, the District of Columbia’s non-emergency hotline.

Lateefah Simon Master Talk

Lateefah Simon is a 20-year veteran organizer for racial justice in Oakland and the Bay Area. She has been the President of the Akonadi Foundation since 2016. That same year—driven by the death of Oscar Grant—she ran and was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors—of which she now serves as President.

Public Safety Alternatives

Public safety reforms can be a polarizing conversation, but it is not one we should avoid. Rather, we should face the challenge, embrace the conversation and look at alternatives to providing safety. When we do so, we will find a plethora of programs that address the problems our urban districts face. Please join us as we explore three unique programs addressing sobriety and diversion, mental health and reducing violence by using disease control and behavior methods.

Data-driven/Predictive Urban Management and Public Safety for a Safer City

This project focuses on how the power of technology can be harnessed to streamline and empower urban management practices for greater accuracy and better outcomes. Working in partnership with global security service provider Securitas SA, the VRCID invested in advanced technology to extend its surveillance. It is one of a handful of improvement districts in South Africa to build and manage its own centralised control centre through which all reporting is processed into a response database.

Transformation of 16th Street Mall

While considered the spine of downtown Denver, by 2016, the Mall’s image had become one of a place overrun by homeless and violent individuals. Comments on social media and media reports led to a general perception that the Mall was lost to crime and homelessness and not a place to visit. However, what most of the public did not realize was that the Downtown Denver Partnership had already been working with stakeholders to develop a Security Action Plan (SAP).

BID Responses for Emergency

BID’s play an important role as a liaison between the public and private sector. Downtown stakeholders rely on BID’s to ensure they receive accurate information regarding critical incidents that affect the people working and living downtown. Join this session to hear from subject matter experts about the role BIDs can play in emergency preparedness, planning, response, and recovery. Become a BID with a robust emergency plan and notification system prepared to respond and recover effectively when a disaster strikes.

What’s Our Real Role With Homelessness

Work with representatives from Arizona State University’s Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions to strategize what is truly a BID’s role in homelessness?

Recruiting, Training, Coordinating Clean Safe Teams

This session provides a behind the scenes look at what it takes to staff, train and coordinate the work of Clean, Safe & Outreach programs in our dynamic city centers. Discussion topics include data collection, efficiency, building partnerships and creating employee pipelines.

Managing the Nighttime Economy

A strong Nighttime Economy is made up of more than just a string of restaurants and bars in close proximity. A variety of experiences must be available in order for districts and communities to encourage visitors to linger and visit multiple entertainment options. However, what is even more vital are the often overlooked things. Discuss how Ops teams provide the foundation through infrastructure and amenity management that encourage strong nighttime economy opportunities.   

The Balancing Act of Managing Nightlife

Jim Peters, Founder and President of the Responsible Hospitality Institute moderates a panel of urban place management organization leaders with nightlife programs and discusses the rise of the Night Mayor role for urban centers.

The Power of International Partnership

Ahead of Mayflower 400, the downtown orgs in Baltimore, MD and Southampton, UK have “twinned” with each other after meeting at the World Towns Leadership Summit in Berlin. With a mirrored history of waterfront regeneration, the two organizations have identified common themes and shared, knowledge, ideas, staff, and artists. The Japan Area Management Network will review its new collaboration with Singapore and South Korea on common issues and opportunities resulting from the summit in Tokyo.

DVBIA’s Ambassador Dashboard

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) created a bespoke electronic dashboard to monitor and inform the DVBIA’s Clean & Safe team’s operations using collected data. The metrics on the dashboard focused on safety-related actions and observations such as reported theft from autos, open drug use, graffiti, and illegal encampments. The dashboard positively impacted the Clean & Safe team’s operations and accountability while also boosting the team’s morale.

Tim Tompkins – San Francisco

Tim Tompkins has been the President of the Times Square Alliance since 2002. The Alliance is a business improvement district that works to improve and promote Times Square – cultivating the creativity, energy and edge that have made the area an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life for over a century. Prior to coming to the Alliance, he was the Founder and Director of Partnerships for Parks, which works to support New York City’s neighborhood parks.

Improving Safety, Security, and Emergency Preparedness

The Golden Triangle BID, adjacent to the White House and in the heart of Washington’s central business district, has a unique understanding of the post 9-11 paradigm and has responded by creating a safety, security, and emergency preparedness program that is rapidly becoming a national model. The foundational strategy of the Golden Triangle’s program is to engage regularly with building management and the community about security and preparedness.

144 Activities in Town Square Park

The Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Ltd. adopted a new approach to increase the vitality, security and image of downtown, while showcasing one of downtown’s most overlooked assets: Town Square Park, a green space in the heart of downtown Anchorage. Focusing on how positive activities can organically move a space away from issues of crime, homelessness and drugs, Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Ltd. facilitated a new summer program designed to bring new energy to the park through space activation.

Top Issues Council: Downtown Districts at the Table – Planning for Safety and Security

The 2017 IDA Top Issues Council on Safety and Security has developed this guide as a tool for strategic safety planning for urban place management organizations. The council studied the latest crime trends districts face, examined how a district management organization’s role in emergency response and crime prevention has grown, and explored how technology is revolutionizing communication between law enforcement agencies and the business community.

Top Issues Council: Nighttime Economy

After decades of decline and flight from center city districts and neighborhoods in North America, many cities’ central cores are enjoying a modern-day renaissance. Throughout this transition, urban place management organizations have employed a variety of strategies to attract investment and increase opportunities for the surrounding community. This report provides a guide for nighttime districts to regularly reference as they face and address challenges to supporting a nighttime economy.

Resilience on the Street – Preparing for the Unexpected

Communities around the United States have been rocked by unthinkable disasters, realizing only after the fact that an Emergency Operation Plan may have helped mitigate losses. This presentation walks through the immediate and rippling economic and social effects of active threat situations.

Nighttime Economy: A Guide for Emerging, Growing and Established Downtowns

The members of the Nighttime Economy Top Issues Council will present their findings and explain their process in the drafting of the various facets of a healthy nighttime economy. Delve deeper into the four main topics discussed in the final Top Issues Council report: Nighttime Infrastructure, Social and community safety, Activation and Engagement, and Quality of Life Mitigation.

Community Policing and Partnerships: A Canadian Perspective

Urban center organizations are increasingly impacted by social street issues and while they cannot solve such complex social problems, it is vital that BIAs/BRZs/BIDs are involved in the discussions. Forming partnerships with the municipalities, local police, community and social organizations is the foundation to educate and foster understanding around such issues, and to begin to develop strategies and solutions for issues like homelessness and safety.

Active Threat Preparedness for your District

Lessons from previous active threat events illustrate the need to build a more comprehensive approach beyond the average 15 minutes it takes for the perpetrator to be neutralized. Pre-event, immediate response, and recovery activities need to be more thoughtfully considered to fully grasp the complex and dynamic nature of the spectrum of active threat events. This presentation will explore elements of an active threat event.

Downtown Districts at the Table: Top Safety Topics of 2017

Every thriving downtown community requires public safety. As downtown centers become re-populated with residents crime has shifted to include dangerous behaviors. Police forces have been thinning and patrols may not be as commonplace. More city centers are destinations for major events, which may also make them targets. How do districts plan for public safety? As a part of IDA’s Top Issues Council, the Safety & Security team explored this topic and more.

Safety and Security Webinar

Every thriving community requires public safety. Now that your downtown center has become re-vitalized, it’s important to protect the investment within your district. Members of IDA’s Top Issues Council on Safety & Security explore the topics of planning for public safety and capitalizing on available resources to keep your downtown safe.