Legislation
Mainstreaming Community Safety An Executive Summary
Mainstreaming Community Safety - An Executive Summary
The Minimalist Approach: Decision Making
In order to comply with their statutory obligations local authorities will need to demonstrate that they are considering the crime and disorder implications of all their activities. In particular they need to make sure that when they make decisions about policies and services, they take into account their possible impact on crime and disorder.
The simplest way for councils to do this is to require all reports
that necessitate decisions to spell out the potential impact on community safety. Some local authorities are already doing this; for example, planning applications to extend the
opening hours of entertainment venues may be turned down if they are likely to lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour.
If this approach is to be more than a token gesture, however, staff and members will need to have a good understanding of the principles of crime and disorder reduction, and this will require an investment in training or access to specialist advice and expertise.
Implementing Section 17 in this way may be a starting point; however, it has significant disadvantages over the other two levels of implementation described in this paper. Local authorities that do not go on to develop a wider commitment to mainstreaming community safety will miss many opportunities, including cost savings. We do not, therefore, recommend this approach on its own.
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Last update: 17/08/03