CCTV use by local government: findings from a national survey

This paper presents the findings from a national survey of local government to develop a national picture of the prevalence and characteristics of open-street CCTV systems in Australia managed by local councils. Introduction There has been considerable growth in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) in public spaces as a crime prevention measure and, increasingly, as a tool to detect and identify offenders. In Australia, CCTV systems have become an increasingly common fixture in urban centres, in shopping centres and malls, individual shops and banks, on public transport and in car parks. There has been significant investment in CCTV systems as part of state, territory and Commonwealth government crime prevention programs, with CCTV accounting for a growing proportion of overall grant funding available to community-based organisations, particularly local councils. More than a decade ago, Wilson and Sutton explored the operation and management of 33 open-street CCTV systems in Australia. They found that, while open street CCTV systems were initially primarily located in central business districts of major metropolitan centres, there was a growing trend towards their installation in smaller regional and rural centres and in suburban locations. Around the same time, Iris Research conducted a survey of all local councils in Australia to assess the use of CCTV and characteristics of the systems in operation, finding that around one in ten councils had a CCTV system in operation. More recently, Carr examined the use of CCTV by 18 local councils funded by the Australian Government, finding that police were increasingly reliant on local government CCTV and that the ensuing additional cost to council was significant. Similarly, Edmonds found that nearly half of all councils in NSW (46%; n=70) had installed CCTV in public spaces, with urban councils more than twice as likely than rural councils to have a system in place. Given the continued investment in CCTV at all levels of government plus the significant advances in technology over the past ten years, it is timely to reassess the use of CCTV by local councils in Australia. This paper presents the findings from a national survey of local government. The overall aim of this research was to develop a national picture of the prevalence and characteristics of open-street CCTV systems in Australia managed by local councils

Tackling property damage: a guide for local commerce groups, councils and police

Introduction: Property damage is the intentional ‘destruction or defacement of public, commercial and private property’. This covers a range of different acts, including vandalism (eg smashing windows, knocking over letterboxes) and graffiti. Graffiti is the act of marking property with writing, symbols or graphics and is illegal when committed without the property owner’s consent. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Crime Victimisation Survey 2011–2012, malicious property damage was more common than any other property offence, with 7.5 percent of respondents reporting having been a victim in the previous 12 months. The cost of property damage to private property owners, local and state governments and businesses are significant, with an estimated cost of $1,522 per incident (in 2012 dollars) and a total cost to the Australian community of nearly$2 billion each year. Using the handbook This handbook forms part of a series of guides developed by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to support local commerce groups (ie representative groups for business owners and operators), local government and the police to implement evidence-based crime prevention strategies. This handbook has been developed to help guide project managers through the stages of planning, implementing and evaluating a crime prevention project to reduce property damage offences in their local community, particularly in and around commercial precincts. The handbook provides an overview of the three key stages that are involved in delivering a project to reduce property damage: Stage 1: Planning; Stage 2: Implementation; and Stage 3: Review. These steps do not necessarily need to be undertaken in order. Some steps may be undertaken concurrently or it may be necessary to revisit earlier steps. However, it is vital that some steps, such as consulting stakeholders and planning for evaluation, be undertaken early on in the project. Property damage is a very broad offence category. The choice of a particular intervention or interventions will depend largely on the nature of the local problem. Similarly, the successful implementation of a prevention strategy will often be heavily influenced by the characteristics of the local community. This needs to be considered throughout the life of a project

Northern Territory safe streets audit

This audit examined crime and safety issues in the Northern Territory urban communities of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs to help inform effective strategies to reduce the actual and perceived risk of victimisation. Abstract This Special Report is a research driven response to community concerns regarding the level of crime and fear of crime in the Northern Territory. The Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University and the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) were commissioned by the Northern Territory Police Force (NT Police) to undertake the NT Safe Streets Audit. The purpose of the Safe Streets Audit was to examine crime and safety issues in the Northern Territory urban communities of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs and to help inform effective strategies to reduce the actual and perceived risk of victimisation. The audit involved a literature review exploring issues impacting on the fear of crime in the Northern Territory, focus groups with a range of stakeholders in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine, the analysis of media articles on crime and policing, the analysis of incident data from NT Police on assault offences and public disorder incidents, and a rapid evidence assessment of the effectiveness of strategies targeting NT crime problems. Implications for future crime reduction approaches in the Northern Territory were then identified

Precision Z Boson Phenomenology at the LHC

In this thesis the Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order (NNLO) perturbative QCD corrections to Z boson production in association with hard QCD radiation are considered, both where the hard QCD radiation forms an observable jet and where no jet definition is required. The Infrared (IR) divergences are regulated using the antenna subtraction method and all possible initial state configurations and colour contributions are considered. This research is the first complete NNLO calculation relevant for LHC phenomenology using the antenna subtraction method. The work in this thesis forms the backbone of the NNLOJET framework, a highly optimised and flexible Monte Carlo integrator constructed to perform precision LHC phenomenology. The results of this computation are presented both as total cross sections and differential distributions for a wide range of LHC observables. Excellent agreement is observed between the experimental data from ATLAS and CMS for the fully inclusive normalised transverse momentum distribution and the NNLO prediction, opening the possibility of using this calculation to constrain the gluon parton distribution function

Collegiate Athlete Experiences with COVID-19 and Attitudes About Returning to Sport

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, collegiate athletic departments faced the difficult decision to postpone or cancel sport activities. Aside from concerns of transmission, disruptions in sport impacted college athletes broadly. This study was designed to investigate athletes’ experiences during the pandemic toward developing a better understanding of athletes’ attitudes about COVID-19 and returning to sport. Participants included 245 varsity collegiate athletes across NCAA sports and divisions who voluntarily completed an online survey between August and October 2020. Collegiate athletes reported significant impacts of COVID-19 on areas including mental health, physical fitness, and academic progress. Approximately one in four participants reported that they had tested positive for COVID-19 at some point between the onset of the pandemic and completing the survey. Less than half of the respondents, however, endorsed worry about exposure to COVID-19 while participating in their sport. Most collegiate athletes reported satisfaction with their athletic department’s response to COVID-19 and adherence to guidelines and recommendations. Temperature checks, sanitation of equipment and regular COVID-19 testing were among the top recommended procedures endorsed by participants. Some athletes, however, reported concerns about feasibility of safety procedures for their particular sport. Overall, respondents demonstrated eagerness to return to sport despite COVID-19 related risks. Keywords: athlete mental health, college-athlete, COVID-19, pandemic, return to spor

Sports coach as transformative leader: Arresting school disengagement through community sport based initiatives.

Reducing social exclusion through interventions designed to sustain school engagement is a key aim of the education and social policy of any government. This paper is a response to the call for there to be more focused empirical sports coaching research through examining the transformative potential of community based sports coaches to support schools in arresting school disengagement. By embracing an understanding that challenges the definitional core of sports coaching as simply improving the sporting performance of an individual or team, and, drawing theoretically on the work of Carlisle et al. (2006) and Shields (2010), the role of ‘coach as transformative leader’ is articulated. Analysis of data collected by means of semi-structured interviews with a group of community based sports coaches (n=8), revealed three factors salient to our understanding of re-engaging young people with formal education through sport. These were the impact of the community sport programme, the relationship between schools and community sports groups and, the implementation of transformative leadership qualities by sport coaching practitioners. Importantly, this paper explicates the pivotal function that coaching practice which embraces transformative leadership principles can have on re-orienting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds towards more optimistic futures and educational objectives

Effect of road transport accessibility on agricultural produce marketing and livelihoods of farmers in the Kasena-Nankana West District of Ghana

For developing counties like Ghana, tackling existing internal economic and social disparities demands long term strategic solutions to mitigate the severity of poverty among some specific vulnerable groups within the society. By enabling the effective exchange of goods and services, the road sector makes a tremendous contribution to the economic development of rural societies and the eradication of existing rural-urban disparities. In many developing countries, however, rural road transport networks are generally of a low quality owing to little priority accorded to them. This paper, therefore, assessed the effects of poor road transport accessibility on the marketing of agricultural produce in the Kasena-Nankana West District of Ghana. The paper draws on the experiences of 150 respondents; farmers and transport operators from three communities (Babile, Chiana and Naania) and officials from the Feeder Roads Department of the District Assembly on the challenges of marketing agricultural produce in the District. Data collection was based on primary sources using questionnaires and interview guides. The analyzed data was presented in descriptive statistics such as percentages using tables and graphs. The condition of the road has engendered the practice of drivers overloading their vehicles. Utmost among the challenges confronting produce marketing is the issue of increased transport fares. The major impact of poor road transport network on the marketing of agriculture produce, identified by the study was the high incidence of post-harvest losses. Also, the increased cost of transportation compels farmers to sell their produce at farm gates at lower prices. The study, therefore, recommends that the District Assembly and Department of Feeder Roads improve the road networks within the area while storage facilities should be built and strategically sited in the communities to store farm produce.