Perceptions of Safety in Rural Places: A case study

Avery Moore Kloss  00:07

Welcome to CRSP Talk a podcast from the Center for Research on Security Practices at Wilfrid Laurier University. I'm Avery Moore Kloss.

James Popham 00:15

And I'm James Popham. The theme for this episode was community risk and well being in the County of Brant.

Avery Moore Kloss  00:20

James is joining us today so we can bring you a podcast episode built from a research project happening in real time in the rural parts of the County of Brant, Ontario. In this episode, you will hear six rural community members talk about their views on what risks they see to their safety and well being in rural places. This audio was used as part of the research project headed up by James for community focus groups to spark discussion. I note that as part of this project, the six participants gave their thoughts through audio anonymously, so you will not be hearing their names or specific locations.

James Popham 00:54

Our goal is to bring attention to the ideas and issues that affect the sense of safety and well-being in the County of Brant rural communities. These conversations will help to inform the county's community safety and well being plan, ensuring that rural voices are heard and included in current and future policy.

Avery Moore Kloss  01:12

So we thought this was a great opportunity to bring research and action to CRSP talk. Let's get started. First up, how can we talk about the County of Brant, if you don't know what or where it is? Here are our six participants summing it up on our behalf

Participant 1  01:31

Brant county’s quite large. So there's lots of smaller communities, lots of really nice little towns,

Participant 2  01:39

if I have to describe County of Brant, I feel like it's a cluster of these little villages everywhere, Scotland and Oakland and Mount Pleasant, and Cainsville. And then you have Paris, which is more of a town setting.

Participant 1  01:54

St. George is another really nice community, lots of farms and lots of small little communities,

Participant 3  02:01

and lovely lovely parks and walking trails,

Participant 1  02:05

lots of nice little shops and restaurants and tons of places to hike.

Participant 2  02:11

I feel like it gives you more of like a country living vibe over like a small town vibe.

Participant 3  02:17

That's our community.

Avery Moore Kloss  02:33

Before we present you with our participants perceptions of community risk, we must first have them define what community safety means to them.

James Popham  02:41

Community Safety can mean different things to different people. For example, one of our participants told us community safety is a feeling of being safe both in your home and out in the community.

Avery Moore Kloss  02:51

Another said it's when a community is set up so that people don't get hurt something like the presence of neighborhood watch in a community

James Popham  02:57

Neighbors watching out for one another came up time and time again, in our interviews about community safety. Here's an example.

Participant 4  03:04

Community safety to me is largely driven by being a good neighbor, but also, you know, minding your business at the same same token, you know. the neighbors watch out for one another, but they don't get involved. So so that means that you know if I was gonna do something, you know, stupid, like, like snooping around, you know, my neighbor's property or trying to, you know, get into like their garage or whatever, well, the fields are wide open, you know lots of people are gonna see me lots of people are gonna recognize, you know, my vehicle, and they're gonna say to, you know, to my neighbor, hey, Wally, who's a fictional neighbor, you know, I saw, you know, you know, snooping around your barn or something like this. And, you know, the community has to own it, and the community has to want it and they have to respectfully look out for one another, and be cognizant of what's going on around them, but not being involved in everybody's business.

Avery Moore Kloss  03:57

Looking out for one another. Most of our interview participants centered their answer to this question about defining community safety around the same ideal.

Participant 1  04:06

It's not something I think about too often, I guess, feeling like you weren't too far from help. If you needed it, you know, that people generally look out for each other. And I know in our little area where we live, it's a nice kind of a quieter, little subdivision. I've always felt pretty safe here.

Participant 5  04:27

From my perspective, Community Safety would be the ability for me to send my kids up to their friend's place down the road without having to be in danger. Whether that's physically from cars or personally from people that don't have their best interests in mind. The ability not to worry, I think is the would be the key defining factor for me.

Avery Moore Kloss  04:45

feeling safe where you live seems to be the general definition of community safety among our interviewees.

James Popham  04:51

But how do you decide if you feel safe in a place? What are the indicators of low community risk?

Avery Moore Kloss  04:56

We heard that the number of break ins nearby or other illegal incidents are events people consider to decide if they feel safe. For some residents of the County of Brant, it comes down to location, comparing crime in their community to rates in centers like Brantford and Hamilton.

James Popham  05:12

One of the more common themes that emerges from academic study of rural crime and safety is that of the idyllic countryside. On the one hand, people will often downplay the assumption that rural remoteness equates with safety. But on the other hand, we'll hear that being in the country avoids some of the issues that come with urban spaces. While there's a lot of debate about both of these ideas, it's important to acknowledge that a person's perceptions plays a big role in how they understand personal and community safety.

Avery Moore Kloss  05:41

Absolutely, James, and I think one of the perceptions we hear so much in rural communities is that there's more social cohesion, can you tee-up what that means for us?

James Popham  05:51

Sure, our sense of safety is often shaped by our interactions with our neighbors, for example, being able to ask a neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar, or to watch our house while we're away on vacation can dramatically improve the way we feel about our own safety, and the safety of our loved ones and our property in the community that we live in.

Avery Moore Kloss  06:10

I think the place to start this conversation is what are people like where you live? Which, of course is the question we ask all of our participants. Really, we heard two different things here, that everyone watches out for each other, and that everyone keeps to themselves, which could seem like two contradictory statements, but we'll let you hear how our participants put it,

Participant 4  06:30

people are friendly, but people also keep to themselves in the sense that, you know, nobody gets really caught up in anybody or anybody else's business and you look out for one another, but then you also respect one another to the same degree and people aren’t phoning you know, by law or the police over over silly ummmm, you know, issues. No, everybody, people watch out for one another, but they tend to also keep to themselves in mind their business.

Participant 2 06:59

I think there's some people that definitely keep to themselves. And then there's other people that are, you know, very eager to chit chat, we have a lot of people that walk around here and walk with their dogs, especially during this pandemic, like when there's not lots to do. People are outside more and stopping to chat. And so it's definitely a busy neighborhood with lots of people walking around and chatting, and things like that. I don't know how well people really know each other. You know, it's not like we have like neighborhood barbecues or anything. It would be more of like, just Hey, good morning, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah.

James Popham  07:37

How community members engage with each other is an important indicator of feelings of safety we used in our interviews, and collaboration between community members, and the county is definitely a point of interest.

Avery Moore Kloss  07:49

When we asked participants if they knew what was happening in their community to encourage safety, here's what we heard,

Participant 3  07:55

I would say if there is I'm definitely not exposed to it as much. Personally, like, I feel like as a younger generation, living in the county, I more I guess I keep up to date myself with things going on, like through social media, or online. So I follow like the County of Brant city offices and things like that. So like I'm aware, personally, if there is something comes up around the whole county, but if I'm like, about to go talk to someone that lives on my road, they're probably not going to be aware of things going on, or they're not going to tell me things that are going on. Because I think like on that very local level, like we wouldn't know what's happening.

Avery Moore Kloss  08:42

During Ontario's stay at home order, many people only had access to their direct neighbors in their area. So we asked participants whether knowing their neighbors made them feel safer

James Popham  08:52

for these next participants, knowing their surrounding neighbors contributes to their sense of safety when they're home. And when they're away. Whether they were close friends or not.

Participant 3  09:00

I think one thing that contributes to a sense of safety is we know our neighbors beside us and across we know our neighbors all around us. But in particular, we know neighbors beside us and across from us, and they they watch out for us because we're the older people.

Participant 1  09:18

Well, I wouldn't say there's closeness, I would just say that people are very friendly and kind. So, you know, you you tend to feel safer, because, you know, like, we've been here a long time, like we've been in this on this house for 16 years. So you know, people know us like just to say hi, and you know, we're familiar, and I feel the same way about quite a few people in the area. So I guess that just kind of makes you feel like, you know, everybody's kind of watching out for each other in that regard.

James Popham  09:52

Some of our interviewees told us that they feel like they aren't close with their community now, but as their assessment of risk level changes, they might see seek that closeness.

Participant 2  10:01

I'm sure we would probably be more involved in different initiatives or like even assessing the risk if we participated more in the community, or talking to other families in the area, which right now, we don't really, because our son's so small. But like I can imagine, like, once we're involved in like sports or elementary school in the area, or he starts, when he starts riding the bus or things like that, I feel like maybe talking with other people and being close within the community would make us assess that risk level a little bit more. But I would say, Maybe I am somewhat aware that other people share the same concerns because of like social media and the online presence that I have.

Avery Moore Kloss  10:50

For others closeness with neighbors wasn't as important.

Participant 4  10:54

To be perfectly honest, I would say that, I don't know if I would feel any more safe. If I knew, you know, all five neighbors around my neighborhood, I think back to you know, as a kid growing up, my teenagers and my parents, my parents knew everybody, you know, five houses down each way on the street. And I compare that to my life experience now. And, and honestly, I can't see that, you know, are felt any more or less safe, you know, now not really knowing and not and not living in a closely connected community versus, you know, when I did in my younger years,

Avery Moore Kloss  11:30

so does community closeness bring a feeling of safety. We heard differing opinions on this subject from feeling safer, because neighbors are watching out for one another, to county residents looking out for themselves.

James Popham  11:43

Yeah, there's a couple of important points here. First of all, there's this idea of collective efficacy. This is something that scholars researched years ago, but it's still important today. And generally, it holds that a mutual trust among neighbors combined with a willingness to act on behalf of the public good, can really improve a person's sense of being and sense of community. Second, it's really important to recall that rural communities are not homogenous, and that the local challenges will differ. For example, outsider communities, people who are newcomers or people who have different beliefs or different identities may not experience the same level of integration into the community as those who have been there for quite a while.

Avery Moore Kloss  12:25

You know, James, something we heard a lot from some of our research participants was that the closer they lived to rural police stations, the more safe they felt. So if you live in the County of Brant, your neighborhood, village or town is under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police, or the opp. Through our interviews, we heard about many different ways residents interact with the opp. And before we dive right into policing in the County of Brant, I think it's important to start off the conversation with a question, what is the current relationship between the community and the police?

James Popham  12:58

We thought we would let our interview participants answer that question for you. Here's how five of our interviewees see that connection, or lack thereof

Participant 4  13:06

I would describe as a respectful and professional relationship, but certainly not one. Where, you know, the community invites involvement from the police,

Participant 1  13:17

personally, like for me and my family, like we appreciate the police. You know, we appreciate what they do. They're in tough situations all the time. And I really respect that and admire that. And I'm very thankful for them.

Participant 3  13:33

Absolutely. We see them every once in a while with their radar guns. And that's it.

Participant 2  13:42

I don't see opp involved in much. I mean, the opp has also opened up a new station, about five minutes from us in the county, and that's recently just opened up this year. So I mean, their presence could be a little bit more going forward. But I would say right now not so much

Participant 4  14:03

On a day to day you know community perspective. I would say that, in my opinion, police are relative strangers.

Avery Moore Kloss  14:13

When it comes down to it, the community's relationship with police has to do with how often and where they see the police on a day to day basis. But what about calling the police? We heard different things from different participants about whether they would consider calling the police in a rural place based on past interactions with the opp.

James Popham  14:32

Those interactions with the police also differ between participants who live in populated areas and more rural parts of the county. For example, this participant told us that they think out in the county 10 to 15 kilometers from town, people are less likely to call the police

Participant 4  14:46

There's an expectation that you're just trying to take care of yourself and and there's no there's no need for um for for the police or bylaw or anything It's weird people, I think, I think especially on where we are, where I am, there's kind of an understanding that the authorities are there to help in an extreme situation, but generally, they're not welcome host. So where's the line? When it comes to a bylaw? You know, type of thing? I don't think anybody out, as far in the county, where I would ever call, you know, bylaw on a neighbor or something like that, you know, in terms of our meeting the police or something like that? I think it would be, I think it would be, you know, something a real critical, you know, crisis, you know, a car accident, or heaven forbid, I mean, for whatever reason, there was a, you know, a domestic fight or something like that. But, you know, aside from that, aside from a real crisis, where there's a fight, and there's a threat to life, or, or car accident or something like that, I generally get a sense that, you know, the police are there to use, but they're more or less not welcomed?

Avery Moore Kloss  16:01

So is this something that's happening on a broader scale? Is there a sort of understanding between rural neighbors to keep police out of disputes? What do you think, James?

James Popham  16:11

Well, I think there are a number of different reasons as to why people would make this decision. For example, we've often heard about community cohesion, there's often a live and let live sort of worldview, as there may be a time in the future when somebody needs to call on their neighbor for help. We've also heard from many people who experienced delays between calling the police and having them arrive, which may influence their decision to call the police in the future. And sometimes, it's just not clear who to call. For example, in a previous study I did with some rural community members, we heard from one rural participant who said when she found coyotes in her property, she just didn't know who to call. This participant was also asked when they would or would not consider calling the police. And their answer was, it depends.

Participant 4  16:57

It really depends on the type of crime that was, you know, that that was committed against me or

Avery Moore Kloss  17:07

for others, calling the police when an incident occurs is the norm. Like for this participant who told us that even though incidents don't arise often, the police should know what's happening

Participant 3  17:17

Yeah, personally, I would, because I feel like if you're not reporting it, it just goes unknown. And I don't think I have enough community relationships where I would feel okay, not reporting it at this point. So, yeah, I just feel like police would need more awareness that these things are going on. And maybe they don't, because they think we're in a rural area. It's, it's mostly peace and quiet. But there are certain cases where that's not happening.

James Popham  17:50

In this discussion about when to call the police the middle ground is well summed up by the participant. Calling the police on neighbors is not something most of our participants said they would do, unless there's the possibility of injury or serious harm.

Participant 3  18:04

If it was something serious, yes, I would, if it's that you're just going to tattle for tattling. No, I wouldn't. But if there was something that was dangerous, and that I definitely would. if somebody was being abused. And that, yes, I would report it because I physically wouldn't be able to go and do anything to, you know, to stop it kind of thing.

Avery Moore Kloss  18:35

So, James, what does the research say about this relationship between rural community members and the police?

James Popham  18:42

One of the big things that comes up is the importance of police integrating locally. The term community policing tends to be viewed as an urban approach to policing, but really, it can work in rural areas as well. Researchers in the very rural Minot North Dakota, explained that this integration is particularly important in rural environments, where contacts between the police and population are closer because the lower number of police officers per capita, and that many people reside in rural areas for much longer than they would in urban areas. Another thing to consider is that the problem of community integration may be inflated in Brant given the nature of the opp, as many of the officers may not be familiar with the county before being assigned to this post. Finally, there's the unavoidable issue of geography. Brant is huge. It's just under 850 square kilometers, and it's 50 kilometers wide and 55 kilometers tall. The opp have moved their headquarters from downtown Paris to a more rural area, which is far better at serving the western parts of the county, but those on the eastern side are still underserviced.

Avery Moore Kloss  19:51

So if some crimes are going unreported, how are rural residents protecting themselves from risk in their community? Here's what we heard from residents about measures they take to create a feeling of safety on their own properties.

Participant 1  20:03

Well, we lock our house and our garage and all that stuff. If I was somewhere else at night, I would probably do the key thing for sure. But around my house, like, we don't really we don't, and we don't have an alarm or anything, we just have locks. Yeah, that's about it,

Participant 5  20:23

I'd say that most people that have a standalone house, like, out in the country that's not on a farm would have an alarm system or some sort of, like it's to be, it's debatable whether they're useful or not, because some of these instances, but the people can be in and out and gone. Before anybody would ever get,

Participant 3  20:40

we have a dog who is a big dog and is very territorial, and where we have that invisible fence, and he can roam around the few acres we have. So if there's people kind of coming onto our property, we we know about it, even if we don't necessarily see it ourselves. So, and I mean, we had the dog before, we didn't get the dog for the purpose of where we're living, but he's been really helpful.

James Popham  21:07

For others security systems are in place, but the measures they're taking are more about not attracting crime to the property, 

Participant 4  21:14

We have a burglary alarm on our house, and it's well signs that our house does have, you know, a burger, burger delivery system associated with it. And I will see the other biggest thing, you know, that that I do is that we just, you know, I think steps not to make myself you know, our target, so I don't I do things like you know, I don't leave, you know, the garage door full of tools open for anybody driving on the street to see oh, you know, dry, you know, 1000s of dollars of tools in the garage, I mean, it's just a matter of, you know, just not being you know, flashy about, about big purchases of buying jewelry from my wife or something like this, you know, it's gonna do it, but I don't, I don't certainly don't advertise, and I've spent, you know, X number of dollars on a piece of jewelry, that somewhere around the community. So I think you know, being discreet, and just trying to make yourself look like an average show, that there's not something that would attract attention to yourself.

Participant 5  22:21

I have dogs. You know, just not mean that they're big. And that's more of a psychological intimidation for anybody that comes up. I tend to scatter my belongings over the farm, so that if anybody has to take something, they might get something, but not everything.

Avery Moore Kloss  22:38

For this resident, even though they have cameras installed on their house, they are also relying on the community around them to watch out for their safety.

Participant 2  22:46

So that gives us just a little bit more peace of mind where if we do go out of town for a night or out of town for a weekend or on vacation or whatnot, we don't have people around us that we're close enough to where they can come and check on the house, or they're keeping eyes on the house. If we have the cameras, we can always check in on the house ourselves.

James Popham  23:07

And for this participant, no self protective measures are necessary.

Participant 3  23:12

Like people aren't going out and beating up innocent people on the street or anything like that. The crime rate is far less than this city.

Avery Moore Kloss  23:21

This thought that the crime rate is low in rural places, is the same thing that fuels the idea that people in rural places don't lock their doors.

James Popham  23:29

Here's what some of our interview participants said about that long held rural stereotype.

Participant 3  23:34

Well, I've always locked doors because I've lived in city. I grew up in the country, but I've lived in cities, I've lived in towns, but I'm not fanatical about it. Like, I don't have every door in the house locked when I'm in the house. And I know people who do. I don't go to bed at night, with the doors open. Let's put it that way.

Participant 4  23:55

Well, if it were up to me, I would not lock my front door, my wife insists on locking the front door. But I would personally feel safe enough to not lock the front door and right. But that's that's me.

Participant 3  24:11

When I was first married, you left your keys in the vehicle. You'd never locked your door for the reason if somebody really needed to come in for something they could. And so, but over the years, and we started, as I say when they start to steal vehicles, that's when we started taking the keys out of them and locking them and we started to lock our doors. But I would say I was probably 20 years before we started any of that.

Avery Moore Kloss  24:47

James, what are some of the ways that the research says is different about how rural community members take self protective measures?

James Popham  24:55

Yeah, this may be an example of the City Mouse and Country Mouse both liking cheese A survey was conducted by researchers Matthew Gibbon George Burris, Nicholas Corsaro. And Joseph Schaffer back in 2009. And it identified a number of self protective measures taken by both rural and urban residents. In the United States. The authors couldn't find any significant differences between the two groups, and they tested for a lot. Access control, personal security, including dogs and guns, surveillance, and alarms or even property marking so engraving their tools. They concluded that, quote, rural community members are neither universally more nor less cautious than their counterparts. One important thing that the author's did point out is that rural residents were more reactive, they wouldn't necessarily take protective measures until after they or a neighbor had been victimized. In terms of broader issues of self protection, for example, issues relating to personal well being. Other researchers have found that service organizations have become increasingly centralized in urban areas. One thing that these researchers suggest is that better coordination is needed. At the individual level. This might mean things like ride sharing, or even greater openness to some of the self care issues that arise in rural communities. It also might call for championing better support at the social institutions where people gather, like their churches or rec centers.

Avery Moore Kloss  26:24

Safety and rural places is a topic that small communities are keeping top of mind. What we heard in the County of Brant is just one example of the differing views rural people hold about safety, policing, and the personal protective measures they're willing or unwilling to take. This episode was made in partnership with the County of Brant and with financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. A big thank you to Dr. James Papa for joining me this episode to help translate what we heard and connect it with recent research. You can find links to any of the research James mentioned in this episode in the show notes. CRSP talk is a production of the Center for Research on security practices at Wilfrid Laurier University. For more research stories, listen to past episodes of this podcast. And for more information about the work we do at the Center for Research on security practices, please visit our website at CRSP dot online. Thank you for listening to CRSP talk. We'll be back again soon with more research to uncover. I'm Avery Moore Kloss.

James Popham  27:29

And I'm James Popham with Wilfrid Laurier University