West End Coal Harbour Community Policing Centre

The West End-Coal Harbour Community Policing Centre (WECHCPC) is a registered charity that pursues crime prevention education and personal safety awareness activities in the West End, Coal Harbour and Stanley Park neighbourhoods of Vancouver. We operate on a non-profit basis in collaboration with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). Community Policing comes from a different mindset than conventional policing. It is a reactionary response to changing opinions towards community needs. It is rooted in a desire for increased trust in localized crime prevention methods rather than in a dependence on traditional crime control methods. The WECHCPC addresses this in two ways: * directly involving community members in developing the activities to create and foster that trust, and * delivering the activities to the community by other community members in their peer group. This operating method pairs the expertise of police officers with the insight of community members to create a philosophy that focuses on actions to improve civic well-being from within the civic environment itself. It allows representatives of the broader community to take an active role in determining what is required based on the needs of individuals and the community.