“Reducing Crime"
While we do not like to talk about it or even think about it, crime is on the increase throughout the world. The number of burglars, muggers, robbers, purse snatchers just to name a few, is growing at an exacerbating rate. Every youth as a resident, working with neighbours can help reduce the crime rate. The following are some of the suggestive ways of reducing crime in our neighbourhood:
By means of setting up or joining a neighbourhood program in which you and your neighbours come together to learn how to protect yourselves, your family, your home and your property. Working together, you can get the criminals off your building, and obviously out of your neighbourhood. Through working with a group there is safety in numbers and power or strength. We get to know our neighbours more and working together can shrink crime, develop a more united society or community thus offering possibility of communication between the police and citizens, and renew citizen interest in community activity.

Crime in our neighbourhood can be reduced by an introduction of a “Peace Makers Campaign”. With this program youths are inspired to act as change makers, that it, actors of peace building. The change maker method will aim at the individual changing his/her attitude and believing in peace then acts as change maker, that is, each individual play a role in changing his/her friend ideals positively and contribute to reducing crime and promoting peace. This change maker’s concept will help promote peace, coexistence and unity among members of a neighbourhood. With this campaign youths can be trained and encouraged to act as peace builders. It will provide diverse strengths and richness in different cultures. With the training of youths as change makers the Cs Concept will be of great assistance. The Cs concept clearly emphasises on the following:
- Change: to help young people deal with day-to-day changes and acquire skills and confidence to be fully productive and good community member.
- Confidence: to help youths develop a sense of self-worth based on believing in their ability to make a positive difference by making choices and taking initiatives that can make a change in the community.
- Character: to succour youths acquire a sense of responsibility and accountability regarding their actions.
- Connection: to help young people develop a sense of belonging in a positive way. Being connected to the community and the members and develop a positive and mutually beneficial relationship regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
With the change makers concept it is good to work with in network with youth groups and have the leaders of various community or neighbourhood trained in the concept as training of trainers (TOT)

Crime in a neighbourhood can curb or reduce by establishing a citizen’s safety project. With such a project citizens are gathered in groups and thought ways of preventing crime with huge assistance of local police. This can be in the form of combined effort involving citizens and local police. The citizens group themselves to learn crime prevention from local authorities. They cooperate with the police to report suspicious activities in the neighbourhood, to keep an eye on homes when the inhabitant is away, and to keep everyone in the area mindful of the standard precautions for property and self that should always be taken. Criminals avoid neighbourhoods where such groups exist. Through cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, citizens can learn the following: What to do in an emergency; how to best identify a suspicious person ; how to protect yourself and family; what to do about suspicious people loitering on your street or neighbourhood; how to identify stolen merchandise; how to protect your home or residence; how to recognize a burglary in progress; signs to watch out for before entering a house or apartment that may be in the process of burglarised; and how to identify a vehicle being used in a suspected criminal activity.

Removal of illegal guns from the street can help reduce crime and make our neighbourhood safe. Illegal weapons are a major factor in compounding crime rates. High rates of criminal gun possession tend to swell the overall violence associated with crimes, and are really destructive of public order. It is impossible for a community to believe that crime will not be tolerated if they see people infringing the law by carrying illegal guns on a daily basis, let alone if the night is occasionally punctuating by gunfire. The fewer guns on the streets in malicious hands, the fewer shootings there will be, and the safer and more orderly a city will be. It is vital for police to distinctively target illegal guns. One strategy simply requires police to check the identification of those stopped for less serious offences. Persons wanted for other crimes can be searched, and they will often turn out to be carrying illegal guns, which can then be confiscated.

Furthermore, the targeting of illegal drugs will hugely help in reducing crime in our cities. In most cities, there is a clear link between crime and illicit drugs. Crime and drug usually patch or tie with one another, and where drug markets exist other crime will be practically inexorable. Even more so than in the case of illegal guns, a thriving drug trade engenders contempt for the law, as it is so obviously un-enforced. Devoting resources to effective anti-drug initiatives will therefore result not only in reduce drug trade, but also make a robust impact in reducing other related crimes and restoring order.

Creating partnerships to solve problems is essential for crime reduction. Police will always play the central role in crime prevention. However, they remain limited in what they can do, and many crime problems include facets that are beyond the scope of their prevention capabilities. Partnerships with other government agencies and community groups are essential to valuable crime prevention. Almost every crime problem is associated with issues that fall under the responsibility of other government services.

Conclusively, faith and service organizations and community groups can provide vital support to crime prevention in ways beyond the abilities of the public sector. Such institutions, be they community centres or places of worship, are, for example, the ones who can provide alternatives to crime for the youth, or ways to reform for past offenders. These groups are also vital for rallying community support for the police and their crime prevention efforts. Every problem requires different partners for its solution. The best efforts at crime prevention therefore require both an appreciation for which problem. Christian Phuebong Tabifor (BAPESU-Cameroon)