Here is the recap of our June 1st 2023 Event with Dr. Irvin Waller.
My simple message: We cannot afford not to make violence prevention a priority. We are already paying far more for the consequences.
As I said in my introduction, as taxpayers want to make every single dollar whether it is spent on health care, education, prisons, or policing is securing the best return on investment in terms of keeping people safe and ending violence. Much of this is a provincial responsibility, and we need them to step up far more. Collectively, if we do our jobs as civil society in preventing violent crime, we will make the job of police officers a lot safer, easier and reduce their workload.
According to the Edmonton Police Commission one new police officer to the system is ~$190,000. 100 new police officers as promised by Premier Smith is about $20 Million per year. The prison system is another enormous cost. Those are the public costs of reaction (policing and prisons) not prevention. The private costs bourne by individuals through trauma, let alone auto insurance, home insurance, business costs, Fire insurance, missed work time or lifetime due to the costs of violence are enormously staggering.
Please watch and share with interested neighbours.
