The Dispatch | Vol. 3, No. 4, October 2021

Trust and Compassion vs. Fear and Division

Norman E. Taylor
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being

I am pleased to report that another of our Contributing Editors will again be the featured author of our Opening Editorial for the upcoming year-end issue 6(4), continuing a pattern we recently initiated with Rachel Bromberg’s thoughtful and inspiring piece in Issue 6(3). This time, Dan Jones of the Edmonton Police Service and Huddersfield University will offer some powerful thoughts on the theme of “compassionate policing”. Our readers will recognize Dan for some of his prior research work and innovation narratives on trauma-informed CSWB responses, and on the victim-offender overlap in the criminal justice system. We look forward to seeing how Dan turns some similar observations inward to the policing system. As I understand it, his paper will explore the ways in which that system adequately, or inadequately, serves the complex needs of police service members who are at least as affected by these recent times as everyone else, and often more so than most.

I think it is a safe bet that all researchers, policy makers and service providers across the CSWB spectrum will also find strong relevance in Dan’s discussion, as well as in all of the strong and timely articles currently in production for this issue. In these challenging times, it is as if every topic explored, in every paper we’ve been fortunate to receive, review and accept, has been written in technicolour.

But wait, are we really coming to the end of 2021 already? Probably like many of you, I once again find myself struggling with the distorted time-space continuum of an almost two-year departure from everything we took to be normal about our world. As I re-read my most recent Editor’s Corner, written only three months ago, I recognize that a hopeful tone had somehow snuck in. I had even begun to reflect on us being on the other side of this. Truth be told, I think the same tone was evident to varying degrees in each of my last four such pieces, and sadly, equally premature as things turned out. I think, this time, I’m just going to yield and defer to the unknown. Are we close? Or, are we merely awaiting the next plot twist?

What is clear to me is that we are no longer trying to simply outthink and conquer a pernicious and novel coronavirus. Rather, we find ourselves in at least a ‘cold war’ situation. On one side of it, and thankfully, most seem to have recognized that we face a collective threat, and they evidently believe that at least some degree of collectivism is a cherished value in our society, and one worthy of our shared protection. A few, it seems, prefer to choose and exhibit a distorted individualism at toxic levels, even as they watch their own putative “freedoms” being curtailed further and further amid the essential vaccine mandates and other public health measures that most of us simply welcome, appreciate and act upon as best we can.

Let me say this. Human service professionals are people too. Many have young families with all the attendant responsibilities, complications and fears that entails. Some I know personally have already lost loved ones to the pandemic, as have so many families of course. Others I know personally are watching and waiting as frightening health conditions bear down on them, while our beleaguered health systems continue their efforts to resume normal operations. The CSWB system and all its actors are very accustomed to offering compassion to others, and they continue to do so heroically in spite of personal challenges that none could anticipate.

This reflex to compassion also remains quite evident in the current public policy discourse, one that is still trying desperately to reconcile and gently accommodate even those strident resistors. Public health experts know that many are simply frightened, and perhaps like never before in their life experience, have found themselves seized by an epic loss of control. Like very frightened people often do out of mistrust or mere panic, they trade away constructive action in favour of simply wishing someone will make this all go away. So yes, compassion remains a necessary and valid response in such situations, and we will all continue to hope for more willing compliance. But at the same time, I hope that people will also recognize that compassion must be a two-way street. Our tired and battered human service professionals are going to need a lot of care and support as the long journey to global recovery sputters forward into a new set of realities yet to be revealed, or at least, yet to be fully understood and considered.

At the same time, let’s also recognize that none of us can afford to uphold and perpetuate any policies and practices that have fractured trust in the past. Barriers to care and service must be confronted. Equitable access and resource allocations must be achieved. The ‘isms’ must be eradicated from our systems. Full stop.

A hundred years ago, the 1920’s would come to be romanticized for the rumble seats and speakeasies that came ‘Roaring’ to life with new hope and excess. Here’s hoping we have the will and the courage to learn all that we can, and to apply it together with compassion, fairness and hard-earned-trust. I fear that if we fail at this, and if division is allowed to spread and further entrench, our current decade may become etched in history as the Raging 20’s. We are so much better than that.

With this issue of the Dispatch, we are excited to highlight Open Access Week 2021, from October 25th – October 31st. Open Access Week is honoured and celebrated by academic and research communities worldwide. This global event is in its 12th year and SG Publishing is proud to be the publisher of the Open Access (OA) Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being (JCSWB) since its inception in 2016. Together with Editor-In-Chief Norm Taylor and Publisher of Record, the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance (CSKA) we recently celebrated our 5-Year Anniversary. One of our proudest accomplishments over the past 5 years is ensuring JCSWB continues to provide content to leaders, readers, and researchers around the world, at no cost. Our mission supporter, Niche Technology Inc. has been steadfast in their endorsement of the OA platform providing the foundation for equitable contributions for all researchers, authors, and consumers of knowledge alike.

This year’s theme for OA Week 2021, “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” couldn’t be more fitting for the Journal of CSWB. With contributions providing discourse and dialogue around trust, equity, and inclusion, the Journal encapsulates the essence of Open Access Week 2021.

JCSWB is an open education resource for the global CSWB community. Supporting the OA model, JCSWB contributes to barrier-free, up-to-date research that helps provoke multi-agency collaborations. This ‘open library’ model encourages new studies and promising ideas!

The benefits of Open Access Journals are numerous. Studies indicate papers published in open access journals are more easily discoverable, visible, and cited more often than papers published behind a paywall. Simply put, the visibility and impact of publishing research in an OA journal yields increased readership and access to an author’s work, maximizing the impact of their work without restrictions. Even more beneficial is that publishing in an OA journal offers an opportunity to reach new readers outside of a select group or a restricted subscription model.

To help authors maximize the impact and broaden the reach of their work, the Journal has recently updated its Author Guidelines to include formatting requirements for supplemental materials such as videos as well as a section devoted to social media. One exciting new feature is that authors are encouraged to submit a tweetable abstract to use when sharing their article via social media. Authors who provide social media handles and tweetable abstracts will benefit from the Journal’s promotions and increase the discoverability of their important work.

Please join us in celebrating Open Access Week by tweeting to inspire others to support Open Access!

It’s #OpenAccessWeek. Did you know that JCSWB is an #OpenAccess publication? This means that our articles are not hidden behind a paywall and free to all readers. #OpenAccess encourages collaboration, citation, interdisciplinary conversation and more! Share our recent issue today

The shifting environment for community safety and well-being: A readily-available resource

The hallmark of an effective community safety executive lies in their ability to adapt to ever-evolving environments. Whether occurring at the international, national, regional or local levels, often seemingly subtle trends are not apparent to casual observers. The strategic leader, however, is constantly scanning and sensing: keeping alert to events and signals taking shape on the horizon in order to help their organizations prepare and adjust.

Since this strategic role is uniquely the responsibility of the executive, it often presents the classic alignment challenge: how to mobilize others around issues and phenomena that they have not yet seen.

There is no question we are experiencing significant shifts that are re-shaping much of how community safety and well-being – including policing – is organized and delivered.

One of the readily available resources we have found very useful is the recent 2020 RCMP Environmental Scan (2020). This document provides an excellent overview of key trends occurring in a broad range of thematic areas. It should be part of every leader and planner’s toolbox. You can obtain a copy of this important report (available in both official languages) simply by sending an email request to:

RiskManagement_GestionduRisque@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Remember – you can’t fix it if you can’t see it! As leaders at all levels deal with increasing levels of complexity on a day-to-day basis, tools such as this can offer tremendous insight to help make sense of some of it and see through the "noise".

Cal Corley, MBA
CEO, Community Safety Knowledge Alliance

Have you had the chance to read our September issue? To view the Table of Contents and articles from this issue, please visit:

https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/issue/view/20

Highlights from this issue include:

The pandemic, protests, and social innovation: How can we maintain our progress?
Editor's Introduction
Rachel Bromberg

Trauma survivors and the media: A qualitative analysis
Original Research
Tamara K. Cherry

Why Indigenous Canadians on reserves are reluctant to complain about the police
Original Research
John Kiedrowski, Michael Petrunik, Mark Irving

Addressing Indigenous health determinants exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic
Commentaries
Michael Vester T. Bautista, Donna M. Wilson

Check out our Top 3 most read articles for the Journal of CSWB based on the number of full text views and downloads recorded on our website from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. Click here to view other articles from our archives.

Policing of sex work in South Africa: The positive policing partnership approach [LEPH 2019] (5,511 Views)
Donna Maree Evans, Marlise L. Richter, Munyaradazi I. Katumba
Vol 4, No 4 (2019)

COVID-19 and the impact on police services (3,412 Views)
Katy Kamkar, Shahin Mehdizadeh
Vol 5, No. 2 (2020)

On the economics of post-traumatic stress disorder among first responders in Canada (3,010 Views)
Stuart Wilson, Harminder Guliani, Georgi Boichev
Vol 1, No 2 (2016)

Celebrating 5 Years of the Journal of CSWB

LEPH2021

Thank you again to all LEPH2021 presenters who submitted their manuscripts for consideration in our conference themed issues. The response and number of high-quality submissions exceeded our expectations. We look forward to the next conference.

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