Long Term Effects of Quality vs. Poor Police Advice

In order to fully appreciate the long term benefits of providing quality police advice, it is helpful to compare these effects with the long term effects of providing poor advice. The following list was compiled by police officers participating in the Personal Safety Strategies Course:

Quality Advice:

• Preserve safety;
• Save lives;
• Reduce fear of crime, and thereby increase confidence;
• More users of public space;
• Reduced costs for the community (through lesser need for security measures, etc.)
• Reduce the opportunity for personal violence (due to the lack of ‘easy targets’);
• Reduction in the occurrence of personal violence; and
• Increased quality of life.

Poor Advice:

• Increase vulnerability by propagating false perceptions;
• Increase fear of crime;
• Decrease confidence;
• Increase opportunities for crime = increase in personal violence;
• Endanger people’s safety; and
• Poor reflection on the QPS.