Encouraged: NB mayor says new CSI data changes ‘Big Win’

According to a news release from the City of North Battleford, the changes were worked on in partnership with StasCan and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) and along with the removal of rankings that compared smaller cities with a population of 10,000 to larger ones with populations of 100,000, the report now contains added context.

“Both groups agreed with our advocacy and understood our concerns,” he said.

“Like anything, after 15 years of using – a tool if you like – it’s good to take a qualitative audit of what it’s doing, both positive and negative and they saw that there were some unintended consequences going on and uses of this data that was not appropriate.”

Number 1

The previous version of the report ranked North Battleford number one on the list ranking 330 communities with an overall CSI value of 557.1 while the national average was 78.1.

Gillan said while he isn’t sure why it took so long to change the measurements; he suspects the first five to 10 years were to evaluate the tool.

“I guess all the communities were adjusting to it and probably the last five years is when a lot of communities start questioning is it, is it being correctly utilized,” he said.

What they found was that certain communities were paying a price with their reputation.

“We had great support from Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations…as well as of course our many local First Nations around our communities who wanted to join this effort as well,” Gillan said, noting they were seeing the negative impacts as well.

“I guess just the timing and the group effort I guess drove the point home.”

Driving racist perceptions

The unintended consequences that affected the communities being judged in what they saw was an unfair estimation, was more than just economic or the inability to grow. There was a sense of low morale. Touching on the word communality – Gillan said the word ‘unity’ is in there for a reason.
“Is this sort of publicity dividing our community, right – and I believe it was and I think it drives things like racism and things like that that are not easy to measure,” he said.

“In my heart…inside I kinda knew that this was going on that crime statistics and the conclusions that can be drawn were being on – a lot of it was being blamed on our Indigenous residents or our Indigenous neighbours.”

As part of the changes to the report, there is now a cultural component from consultation of Indigenous leaders and their communities.

In the updated report, it reads in part, “the CSI does not consider specific demographic characteristics of each area or how different groups of people in an area may experience harm and discrimination”, and further reads, “the CSI does not account for particular socioeconomic context of an area or the presence or absence of community services that may influence police responses in a given area. It is therefore vital to consider additional context to better understand the lived experience of people in the area.”

It also states that the CSI is “not intended to be used in isolation and is not a universal indicator of community safety.”

Gillan said along with North Battleford, there were similar communities that had been working hard to reconcile and form positive relationships.

A long shadow

“Once a year, this sort of thing comes out and it just puts such a dark cloud over the community,” he said of the pall that cast a long shadow.

Now that context has been added, city leadership hopes will bring about positive change. In the release, City Manager, Dr. Randy Patrick said it will take time “to rehabilitate the community’s image.”

He added that as the years pass and the data is better understood, he believes the population will increase and there will be a sense of renewed pride.

“No city is without its challenges, but certainly communities like ours have not received a fair evaluation when all factors, which have now been made public by Statistics Canada, have been taken into consideration,” he said in the release.

Meanwhile, the data for the 2023 CSI does show a 6.58 increase overall from 2022 but Gillan said that all the increases this year is less than half of previous years.

“For example, our overall CSI went up almost 17 per cent in…’21 to ‘22,” he said.

“I’m encouraged by this direction.”

An upswing

That upswing the city is hoping for is now part of a process that includes a three-part approach to ensuring community safety. The first is an efficient and well-run police department, the second, is proactively prevent crime with the help of education and organizations such as community safety officers, part number three is addressing – with the help of the province – addictions and homelessness.

“When I go to conferences, I hear it from Halifax to Vancouver, it’s not just here, this is really a huge problem in our country and not just even in our country,” he said, noting the societal issue does intersect with police.

“Every mayor is talking about the same thing, ‘How do we address poverty, people not having enough food right now, people…with addictions and how do we jointly work with the province and the federal government to address that.’”

Going forward, the mayor said he believes it’ll be a special year for his city, the Battlefords as a whole and the surrounding communities.

“I’m encouraged because of our relationships, because of our hard work, because now we don’t have this ranking that’s creating negativity,” he said, noting their former inability to attract medical personnel to help serve.

“Everything’s connected right?”

With files from Teena Monteleone

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

by battlefordsNOW Staff

Encouraged: NB mayor says new CSI data changes ‘Big Win’

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