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>View discussions about this entry Country: Canada
Organization: Toronto Crime Stoppers
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005
YouTube Upload - Place your video embed code here from YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing websites. How to embed a video from YouTube. http://YouTube.com/1800222tips
http://YouTube.com/LegalGraffitiArt http://YouTube.com/TorontoBMX http://YouTube.com/NoToGangsONGIA http://YouTube.com/222TIPSCommunity http://YouTube.com/1800222tips Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Use the Internet and Technology to prevent violence
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - Engage in a strategy based on positive relationships between adults and youth and mentor youth on their Internet usage with the intention of finding postings that put kids and the community at risk, and taking action to minimize the risk.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - For two school years, initiated a pilot project in police division #14 in Toronto where there were more assigned police officers targeting youth.. not to arrest them.. but the identify youth who were ‘truant’ .. engage them in positive relations that included bringing them back to school where they were supposed to be.. and engaging them in dialogue about their Internet usage on social networking sites and video sharing sites particulary.. with the intention of finding incidents of potential violence, and taking action to minimize the risk. Punishment for being truant or smoking drugs etc… was not to be arrested, but to help do graffiti clean ups and mural designs on neighbouring properties along with the police and the community working together.
How do you plan to grow your innovation? - A School Resource Officer training manual based on the principles of restorative justice and using the Internet As A Violence Prevention Tool has been written, and now has the approval of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. In August/2008 the first training course ever for police officers working with youth in Ontario will occur at the Ontario Police College in Alymer, ON for 180 police officers from across the province. There are plans for the national police service of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to adapt this training manual and course for police officers to work in a multi-disciplinary fashion with the community and youth to prevent violence across the country of Canada.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - Currently, we are working with Toronto Crime Stoppers (http://222tips.com ) and the Ontario Gang Investigators Association prevention and intervention program http://NoToGangs.org , as well as the Toronto Police Service, the local school boards, and the Argos Foundation, a charity dedicated to ‘Stop the Violence’ associated with the Canadian Football League Toronto Argonauts football team.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - Find the school shooter before he/she does a school shooting.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - This field has not been completed. (166 words or less)
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - Crime Stoppers set a record in 2007 for the number of tips received on its anonymous tip line operated by the community in partnership with the police and the media. The goals of the program are to PREVENT crime, help the police to SOLVE crime and to locate MISSING youth and adults. Close to 700 tips were received each month in 2007, an increase in one year of 70 per month, and the most tips received since the program started in 1984. As well, we have several anecdotal stories of mentoring youth who were talking about guns, weapons and tragic violent acts online.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - The community at large are the beneficiaries because adults in the lives of youth are using the Internet as a violence prevention tool.. and using the Internet as way to have positive relations with youth… and stopping violent acts before they happen.. thus eliminating endless trauma for everyone affected.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - It is currently not specifically funded at all… just the idea of Constable Scott Mills … working with the Toronto Police Service, the community Toronto Crime Stoppers program and the not for profit organization ONGIA (Ontario Gang Investigators Association) through http://NoToGangs.org . The Argos Foundation have indirectly financed the initiative by providing $25,000 for the creation of NoToGangs.org. Crime Stoppers have given money to positive youth initiatives (petty cash etc). The registered charity http://CommunityCAVE.com , Communities Advancing Valued Environments have contributed funds to buy paint and art materials for the Legal Graffiti Art aspect of the youth engagement.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: • Annual budget - Crime Stoppers in Toronto – estimate $100.000.00 • Annual revenue generated – not for profit • Number of staff (3 boxes: full-time, part-time, volunteers) – Crime Stoppers in Toronto has 8 community board members, 5 police staff and 3 civilian support staff.. NoToGangs.org is all volunteer.. Toronto Police Service has approximatey 7,000 police officers + support staff… What is the potential demand for your innovation? - The demand for the concept of using relationships and technology to prevent violence is endless – celebrate positive youth engagement
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - As you can tell from this entry… the messaging needs to be clear, concise and to the point, and one agency needs to take ownership of the concept and market it with solid, sustainable funding going forward.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The origin of this innovation started by Constable Scott Mills of the Toronto Police Service attending a Threat Assessment Training course offered by Kevin Cameron of the Canadian Centre For Threat Assessment and Trauma Response http://cctatr.com in Toronto in 2004. The session was organized jointly by the Toronto Police Service Community Mobilization Unit led by now Inspector David Saunders. The theory advocated by Kevin Cameron was a multi-disciplinary collaboration based on the reality that kids don’t just ‘snap’ and become violent. At the time Cst Mills was seeing a proliferation of gun and gang violent videos being posted on traditional websites, video sharing websites and social networking sites by local youth, and wanted to make a change, as kids were being victimized by their online postings, and the online reputation of Toronto of being a safe a vibrant community was being jeoprodized.
The theories of Kevin Cameron were used to draft a pilot project called Project Internet Truancy at 14 Division. Now retired Superintendent James Dicks and Inspector David McLeod authorized 5 additional uniform bicycle patrol police officers to work on the project for 2 years. Superintendent Ruth White and Inspector Bryce Evans carried on the pilot project afterwards. Constable Mills moved to the city wide Crime Stoppers program as the Community Youth Officer, and has continued the idea of positive relationships with youth – youth working with adults – on challenging, exciting activities like BMX Bike Riding and Legal Graffiti Art, celebrating the good relations using video sharing websites like http://YouTube.com and social networking websites like http://Facebook.com .. and at the same time mentoring youth online, and finding potential violent situations online .. and doing multi disciplinary interventions to prevent violence. Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Constable Scott Mills has been employed as a police officer from 1990-2002 with the Peel Regional Police (Brampton/Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) and from 2002-Present with the Toronto Police Service.
Scott’s current assignment is the school officer for the Toronto Crime Stoppers program. His mandate is to build healthy relationships between youth, the community and police. He promotes the anonymous reporting of tips relating to a crime through the Crime Stopper Tip Line 1-800-222-TIPS and online at www.222tips.com to students at schools, and other venues across the city of Toronto. Crime Stopper programs worldwide assist to solve a major crime every 14 minutes. Scott’s message is focused on a multi-disciplinary approach, heavily based on the threat assessment theories advocated by Kevin Cameron of the Canadia Contact Information:
Scott Mills
Community Youth Officer Toronto Crime Stoppers (community registered charity..) Discussions about this entry
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Using The Internet As A Violence Prevention Tool
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I think “Using The Internet As A Violence Prevention Tool” is a very smart way to connect youth to violence prevention. With cyber banging becoming the new norm, we need to teach the youth that it is o.k, to help stop something bad before it terns into something horrible. In my experience working with high-risk youth, Prevention, Intervention and suppression only work when Prevention and intervention are applied first.
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Hewitt R. Joyner III
Vice-President
PYSA-Aquarius Project
510-435-2807
The impact on the anonymous Crime SToppers tip line. of Using The Internet As A Violence Prevention Tool.... in a one year period, 70 more tips per month to PREVENT crimes, help SOLVE crimes and locate MISSING persons. This was a record since the program started in Toronto in 1984.
The reality is this ..... one of the first reponders to the Columbine School Shooting incident - Betsy Thompson - was asked after a lecture in Toronto about how to prevent such a terrible school shooting... her response was simple.
1. A focus on relationship building is more important than the school curriculum
2. We must invest in PREVENTION
3. We must be reasonable in our expectations.
Examples of our impact:
5. A Crime Stoppers lecture to grade 6, 7 and 8 students at a school in an area known for gang problems resulted in a grade 6 student sending a friend request to the lecturing police officer on Facebook. The officer accepted the friend request, and found that the student's Facebook profile picture was the youth standing with a real AK-47 assault rifle. A further check revealed photos of many other real rifles on the photo section of the Facebook profile. Furthermore, a Facebook Application called 'What Serial Killer Are You?" was posted on this youth's profile, and this youth was indicating to everyone looking at his Facebook page that he was 'Son of Sam' . Officers assigned to youth issues were notified and investigated. Turns out the youth was a recent immigrant to Canada from another country, and the photos had been taken in that country on a trip the youth and his family had taken there in the recent past. It was explained to the parents (who did not speak English well) that by the youth posting these photos for everyone in the world to see, especially the immediate circle of friends, that the youth was putting themsevles at risk for violence. The family and the school was advised of the 'Son of Sam' faciniation, and the youth is being monitored now by all adults in their life relating to his mindset towards guns and serial killers. As a result of the intervention, the photos were immediately removed, and positive relations were maintained between the police, the youth, the school and the family.
6. A legal graffiti bathroom project was done at a local high school with the Crime Stoppers program, in cooperation with the facilities management section of the school board, a community organization called Communities Advancing Valued Environments, and the youth graffiti artists of the school. A lecture to the whole school on how the anonymous reporting system to PREVENT crimes, SOLVE crime and locate MISSING persons was done by the Community Youth officer from Crime Stoppers. A representative from C.A.V.E. attended - Leyla Bulcan. In order to combat the vandalism graffiti problem in the bathrooms of the school, the school board agreed to buy Montana and Belkin spray paint, as well as acrylics for the students to paint the washroom with the police and the community group. Many videos of positive youth engagment in the community on the theme of legal graffiti art were shown to the entire student body during the Crime Stoppers presentation. An invitation was extended to any youth who were artistic to come and paint the bathrooms with their creative license graffiti art. Fifteen youth signed up to participate. Two bathrooms were done. The event was showcased on an EVENT on Facebook and on the Youtube account (both to plan the event.. and to showcase it). Many pictures, videos and comments were put on the Facebook and Youtube accounts afterwards by the kids. One youth who was very quiet signed up, and became friends on Facebook with the participating officer. He had a series of guns posted on his Facebook under the photos section and for his profile photos. He had been one of the painters on the project that was the most cooperative and the most interested. A subsequent informal chat with the youth and the officer resulted in him removing the gun photos from his profile (they were his pellet gun collection.. that was getting negative comments leading to fear and violence from other kids online). The photos were replaced with photos of the youth painting on the graffiti bathroom project. Since this event, this youth has come out to four other community events to help the officers and C.A.V.E. He has C.A.V.E. and the officer listed on his Facebook as his favourite people, and he says that he is no longer shy, and is 'coming out of his shell'.
More examples of our impact:
3. A school principal took up the suggestion from the police officers working on Projet Internet-Truancy to check the online usage of a youth that she was concerned about due to hiim being a target of bullying, and his constant talk of guns. Postings were found talking about the trajectory speed of a bullet needed to penetrate the body armour of the school police officers. Many other concerning postings and 'rants' were uncovered, which resulted in the hunches that the school principal had being confirmed, and gave her enough evidence to call a meeting with the social work staff, police, the youth involved and their parents. It turned out that everyone in the life of the youth was concerned about the same thing... his facination with guns, the fact he was being bullied at school and becoming angry, and his overt talk of things like the speed of a bullett needed to penetrate an officer's vest. A plan was made with the youth and professionals that engaged the youth in a positive direction.
4. A female grade 9 student lost her wallet in a school washroom. The school police officer interviewed her for a report and routinely asked her for her social networking site address and video sharing site addresses. She had authored and posted "100 Ways to Commit A Murder" to her blog. She had intimate details posted that she had come up with on how to murder people in 100 different ways. She was known as a good kid, and was 'under the radar' . School officials and police were able to work with the youth and her family to get her the professional help she needed.
Here are some examples of our impact:
1. A high school aged female posted on her Facebook profile that she was going to kill herself.. the school hall monitor had a relationship online on Facebook with 1/3 of the school population, including this female, and her message that she was going to kill herself came to his mini-feed. He was able to engage her in dialogue online that resulted in her not killing herself and going on to get the help she needed. She later said to the hall monitor that if he had not sent her the simple message to her on Facebook "Are you ok?" at the time she posted that she was going to kill herself, that she would have killed herself. As a result of the note from the hall monitor, she knew someone cared, and she reconsidered her options.
2. Several youths that were investigated by police for truancy, found smoking marihuana in an alley near the school during school hours had their social networking sites 'mentored' by the officers after being brough back to school. A number of these youths had posted images and text to their profiles indicating that they were gang members, but in actual fact they were not. After explaining to the kids that by posing as a gang member online, a real gang member could take offence to this and it coudl result in them being assaulted or killed, as well as explaining the consequences of a future employer doing background checks, and not choosing them for the job due to their gang related postings, the youth removed the postings, and understood the risk that they had put themselves in.
here is my favourite 'impact'
19yr old graffiti artist Kedre Browne aka 'Bubblz' was checking out the positive youth engagement videos on http://YouTube.com/LegalGraffitiArt . He was part of the 'Tribal Bridges Crew', an illegal tagging group in a suburb of Toronto. He asked for an opportunity to do legal graffiti art. He knew that I was a police officer working with Crime Stoppers, but liked what he saw on the YouTube account on the theme of 'Graffiti As A Community Building Strategy'. Kedre ended up painting several ramps for the BMX Bike Park Youth Engagement Project for the Candian Football League 2007 Grey Cup (esentially the 'Super Bowl' for Canada) sponsored by the Argos Foundation. He even designed the staff t-shirts for this. He also started working with the other members of his crew including Jessy Pacho aka 'Phade' on several community graffiti mural projects, along with the police. Many videos are now posted for 'Bubblz' and 'Phade'. The most recent project was the Six String Nation Guitar mural on the back of Lee's Palace in Toronto. See http://sixstringnation.com . Bubblz and Phade both earned money to do this mural for the Luminato Creative Arts Festival http://Luminato.com , and the whole project was set up through C.A.V.E. - Communities Advancing Valued Environments. The best thing about the Internet portion of this story -- Using the Internet As A Violence Prevention Tool - is that Kedre stood up with our Toronto Police Service Chief of Police when Toronto Crime Stoppers announced in Januar 2008 that a record number of tips had been received in 2007, it was Bubblz who 'changed the face of Crime Stoppers', in the words of Staff Sergeant Gord Barratt. For a YouTube video of Bubblz making this speech, click on Youtube at the the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3sgQh9aE0X4 . Note the comments for the most 'impact' in 'CHANGE' .... let's talk !..
Dear Officer Mills
Thank you for sharing this interesting initiative on Changemakrs. I lived in Toronto for 10 years for university and enjoyed living in our beautiful multicultural and generally peaceful city. I like very much the idea of reaching out to young people through online media and using restorative justice to help reintegrate them rather than punish them.
I am wondering about two aspects - one, what about working with one of the Toronto universities or colleges - I would think a project like this would be interesting as a class project or research project to get more future educators or information scientists involved in supporting your work.
Two, how can you begin to better track the impact of your intervention? Everyone who would be able to support you will ask for some indication of how you measure your impact and it is not really sharp enough to refer to greater use of the crimestoppers line. How else do you and your team know you are moving in the right direction? How can some of this implicit ("we just know") knowledge be made clearer to sceptical outsiders in order to make a strong argument for more resources?
All the best from Berlin,
Heather
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Heather Cameron
Professor
Free University Berlin
University Challenge