Public safety is a complex subject that covers issues such as crime, natural disasters, and terrorism. This makes ensuring public safety a challenging field that can offer the right people a rewarding career. There are many ways that you can be a part of public safety; you can join the military, government agencies, or become a part of the police force.
Choosing a career path
Choosing which career path you take will not only depend on what you like but also on your abilities and the potential that it offers you. You should decide if enlisting in the military is right for you as it might help get your foot in the door with some area of training that teaches you how to serve as a part of public safety. Gaining suitable qualifications, such as a master of public safety, will help your career progression.
Steps to improve public safety
The first step to making any improvement in public safety is to outline the current problems. If a certain area is plagued with crime, environmental issues, or subpar healthcare, then it’s a good idea to determine if the issue stems from a lack of safety infrastructure or just not enough resources. Once that’s done, the next step would be looking into how you could improve these aspects of society and what tools are already available.
For example, let’s say you were tasked with improving public safety in your neighborhood by lowering crime rates and raising environmental standards. The first thing you would do is research the current issues in the area. You might find that the crime rate, drug abuse, and traffic are consistent with other areas.
However, you could also look into whether or not there’s been a decline in police activity recently because of budget cuts. The most obvious step would be to simply hire more police officers to increase their presence in the area and provide increased protection for citizens. You may also want to improve your current law enforcement technology or find alternative ways to prevent crime from taking place where there isn’t any policing presence at all.
Practical steps to improve public safety:
1. Improve street lighting
Most public safety departments use street lighting at intersections to help identify where people are and to help guide them safely. However, there are times when poor street lighting enables crime, such as when youths use the lack of light to commit burglaries. By having lights that are activated by motion sensors or cameras installed, this can be avoided.
2. Provide more police officers
If you’re working on improving public safety, it would be a good idea to hire more police officers and make sure they’re patrolling the area frequently. Police officers make good public safety advisors because many people do not realize that crime is most likely going to occur at night. A police presence can significantly decrease the amount of crime in the area because it will discourage criminals from committing crimes.
3. Improve safety precautions at city facilities
Many public safety departments provide a safe haven for their citizens, such as libraries or parks. If you are working on improving public safety, it would be helpful to ask these places whether they have plans to improve their security precautions. Many times, these places don’t have much security, which could make them an easy target for criminals looking to commit any number of crimes.
4. Increase crowd control and policing
When you work on improving public safety, it’s a good idea to look at how you can increase the presence of police officers and crowd control in your area. It would be helpful to know where your city’s theaters are located, as they are consistently one of the top sites for theft, especially if they charge admission fees. You could also add security cameras so that citizens can view police activity on a continuous basis or hire more traffic officers who can direct traffic to improve safety while simultaneously reducing vehicle emissions.
5. Provide security alarms
If you’re working on improving public safety, it would be beneficial to install security alarms in the area that can alert the police to any potential crime. The alarm will typically have a silent mode so that criminals do not know whether or not they have been made. The only way for them to know whether or not they have been detected is by trying to steal something and witnessing whether or not the alarm has gone off.
6. Improve emergency response times
If you’re working on improving public safety, it’s a good idea to look into how you can reduce emergency response times so that criminals are less likely to strike when there are fewer officers available. If you’re looking to make a large impact, it would be beneficial to work with the police department and get them working on recruiting more officers.
7. Provide more guidance for children
If you’re working on improving public safety, it would be a good idea to look into ways of providing more guidance for children who are in danger of committing a crime. While most crimes are committed by adults, sometimes children who don’t grow up in the best environment turn to crime out of desperation or ignorance. By providing them with assistance and support, you can steer them away from committing criminal acts. You could also provide scholarships and mentorship opportunities for high school students or other young adults to improve public safety.
8. Improve emergency medical response
If you’re working on improving public safety, it would be important to look into ways of improving emergency medical response times. While this is usually the number one priority for many departments, it might be a good idea to work with local hospitals and find out whether or not they will provide immediate care to victims of criminal activity. It might also be a good idea to train fire department paramedics on the proper procedures they need to undergo to provide first aid in emergency situations.
9. Provide cyber security training
It’s important when working on improving public safety that you keep up with technology changes and make sure your citizens are aware of them as well.
Improving public safety is mainly the responsibility of local government, which means that elected officials need to work with the police department and make sure they are increasing police presence, hiring more police officers, providing better equipment, improving emergency response times, and training its citizens.