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Jan
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Un Caribe Más Seguro – A Safer Caribbean
Posted by Eric | January 9, 2012 | Categories: Community News, Crime & Punishment | 3 Comments
The US Embassy in San José asked Eric Haller of Un Caribe Más Seguro to write a feature piece on the community safety efforts they are undertaking in the South Caribbean area and we’ve reposted it here for the Puerto Viejo community. The article below describes their innovative work, and shares best practices.
OVERVIEW:
There have been community anti-crime organizations in the South Caribbean for years, dealing with crime issues typical of any tourist beach town: assaults, robberies, and less occasionally, attacks of a more violent nature. Attendance at various neighborhood watch groups tended to follow a cyclical pattern that spiked with the occurrence of higher profile crimes then rapidly diminished.
A meeting in San Jose in 2010 with Jorge Rojas, Director of OIJ, drove home the point that, owing to the extremely low percentage of crimes reported (estimated to be in the mid to low teens), the canton of Talamanca had, on paper at least, one the lowest crime rates in the country. Without the statistics in the form of denuncias, the area received fewer personnel and resources than the conditions in the zone called for.
Community meeting with police
As a response, we created an online database with which the community could report crimes and compile its own statistics, to gain a clearer picture of what was occurring, to identify problem regions and recurring patterns that might aid in prevention, as well as to demonstrate that the incident rate was far greater than was being captured in official numbers. Several barriers existed to adoption, chiefly a strong reluctance, in a town whose economy relies almost solely on tourism, to openly discuss crime for fear of jeopardizing commerce.
A Facebook group was launched, and the ability to see and discuss in near real time how crime is affecting the neighborhood proved a compelling experience. A consensus developed that there was far more to be gained than lost from this sort of open discussion. The group expanded very rapidly, and people motivated each other to get active in the effort.
WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY:
Members of the community have met regularly with the Director of OIJ, Ministers of Public Security, Fiscal General, etc in order to bring to attention the needs of the communities Southern Caribbean. The police chief actively reaches out to the community through regular public meetings and online through the Facebook group. Similar meetings occur with the Fiscalia. The Mayor of Talamanca is also very involved, offering full support and participation in the efforts of the local community and maintaining an active Facebook profile.
PROJECTS:
During the past year, Un Caribe Mas Seguro has continued their work and undertaken new projects. Some highlighted projects:
Online database of Incidents: This has become the primary source of information used by Fuerza Publica. The website also shares information on prevention, who to call, how to act and much more information of importance to the local community: http://www.caribeseguro.com
Convenio between CATCCAS and Ministerio de Seguridad Publica: provides a legal framework for binding agreements of cooperation between MSP and the community.
Streetlight project: a digital inventory map of major streetlights in the region indicating where lights were present, where they needed to be replaced and where they needed to be installed. This would eliminate some of the “dark zones” where tourists were regularly being assaulted at night. The map was used to petition ICE into addressing the issues.
Digital map project: Requested by the Fuerza Publica in order to better identify the local streets and location of residents and businesses. A new police officer receiving a call to person x’s house will be able to pull up that person’s location on a computer screen at the delegation and speed the response time.
Rise in Official Denuncias: Victims who saw little hope of individual justice started filing denuncias for the benefit to the community as a whole that arises from more accurate reporting and statistics.
Police station renovation
Fuerza Publica Capacitacion: Security training program and certification for businesses was offered in June.
Beach Guard Program: ARECHIPU – Association of Residents Playa Chiquita Punta Uva have organized to hire three local beach guards. Guards patrol the beaches, caution tourists who are not being careful and report suspicious behavior to police. Since the inception of the program, the previous average of 1 incident per day has been reduced to nearly zero.
Victim’s Assistance: The Victim Assistance Program helps both locals and tourists through an often complicated judicial process. It supports tourist victims with translation services, helps to file denuncias, helps to cancel stolen credit cards, contacts embassies, offers transportation to OIJ, etc. In the case of more serious crimes, the program helps to coordinate additional nights at hotels and meals in local restaurants so the victim can complete the denuncia process without incurring additional expenses. The program has been successful in turning victims’ encounter with crime from “a very negative experience in a foreign country” to “the community cares – what a great place”.
Hotel and Business Certification Program: Project under development to establish guidelines and a certification program in crime prevention for local hotels and businesses.
LESSONS LEARNED AND BEST PRACTICES:
Law enforcement in Costa Rica faces the reality of needing to do more with less, and without the communication, cooperation, and trust of the communities they work in, they will be at a grave disadvantage.
We consider a program like ours critical to the success of citizen security, and elements that in our experience are essential are:
1) Forum: enables the community to be in direct contact with each other and with law enforcement. We are fortunate to have a police chief, Leandro Chaverri, who was highly receptive to the idea and very motivated, and we used Facebook because of the high adoption rate and its “stickiness”.
2) Incident Database: a tool for the community to keep track of what is occurring is key. As well, it demonstrates to law enforcement that the community is a serious partner, and is dynamically and independently evaluating their work.
3) Regular Meetings: While the communication afforded through the internet is extremely powerful, face-to-face meetings are critical as well.
 Article by Eric Haller. Eric Haller has lived in Cocles for 5 years, plays music, and can be found blogging from time to time at erichaller.com or twittering @haller |
Comments
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Good job, Eric!
As far as I know, we also have a volunteer coming “sometime during the first quarter of the year”. She is working on her Master’s Thesis, which deals with “what developing nations around the world are doing for internal security.” When and if I get an actual date from her, I’ll turn the info over to you guys, and see what can get set up.
Excellent work by the whole community, everyone involved, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!