Mayor Shari Green is assembling a team to take on the city's more unsavoury elements.
During Monday's upcoming council meeting, Green will table a report asking that a select committee on crime reduction and public safety be struck.
Green will sit on the committee - to be known as the Mayor's Task Force on Crime - along with two other councillors and other members of the community who have yet to be determined.
Prince George currently has a number of initiatives in place such as community enhancement and beautification projects, community poverty reduction and housing strategies and community policing initiatives.
Last year marked the third in a row the city topped the list of most dangerous cities according to Macleans magazine, despite dropping in ranking when looking at the unfiltered Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index.
"Our improvement has resulted from a number of initiatives including RCMP focus on prolific offender management, domestic violence preventions and downtown enforcement," Green wrote in her report to council. But, she also argues, these approaches are not cohesive enough.
"We lack a comprehensive strategy that reduces crime and increases community safety; increases public involvement in reducing crime; increases integration between all stakeholders involved in crime reduction and improves public awareness around the reality and perception of crime," Green wrote.
The task force would study the Surrey model, which Green along with Prince George RCMP Supt. Eric Stubbs and other senior city staff, got a firsthand look at during a September 2012 visit to the Lower Mainland city.
Surrey's crime reduction strategy was adopted in 2006 and is a living document containing 106 recommendations divided into four strands: prevent and deter crime; apprehend and prosecute offenders; rehabilitate and reintegrate; and reality and perceptions of crime.
In its first five years of the strategy's implementation, the city saw a nearly 16 per cent drop in total criminal code violations. The Prince George committee would look for parallels with initiatives currently operating at home and determine what further action needs to be taken to develop and implement a local crime reduction strategy encompassing the work of the city, the RCMP, the provincial and federal governments and community agencies.
If approved, the task force will return with a final terms of reference that would include external membership, a work plan and an associated budget at a later council meeting.
