There are a number of other safety audit ideas that you can adopt as part of your local safety audit. You may wish to consider the following:
Large Area Audits
If you want to do a safety audit of a large area of a city, you will need to do a lot of extra planning. Here are some things to think about:
- How many teams will you need?
- Do you have maps and any other important information?
- Can you arrange for safe transportation to and from the audit areas?
- What about childcare?
- How will you organize the volunteers, train the team leaders, collect the checklists, write a summary report and put forth recommendations?
- How will you present the findings?
You may want to contact a local community safety organization to assist you with the audit, such as the Toronto Police Service, Crime Prevention Association of Toronto (CPAT) or METRAC. See our Safety Audit Resources (Checklists) website section for more information
on how to find support for a large audit in your community.
Joint Audits:
If there are many safety problems in your area (or you want to do a large area) and if you have a lot of energy, you could pursue others for a joint safety audit team. Here is a list of some of the people you may wish to contact to be partners in a joint audit:
- Neighbourhood businesses (shops, restaurants, gas stations, 24 hour stores)
- Business Improvement Associations
- Urban Development Services
- Residents' Associations
- Local churches
- Neighbourhood Watch
- Toronto Police Service
- Crime Concern
- Neighbourhood Centres
- Elected Representatives
- Sexual Assault Centres
- School Representatives
- METRAC
Auditing the Transit System:
You may also choose to perform an audit of the local public transportation system. Whenever you are doing a safety audit of a street area that includes a bus stop, or a subway station, be sure to look carefully at where people wait for a bus and how they get to and from the stops.
Here are some extra questions for auditing the transit system:
- How effective is the lighting inside the bus shelter or subway station?
- How far away is the nearest public phone? The nearest private phone (commercial or residential)?
- Is there visible information for passengers about what to do in an emergency?
- Are you aware of the TTC Designated Waiting Area and Stop Request Programs?
You may choose to contact the TTC directly to discuss your concerns or issues.
You may also contact the Corporate Security Department of the TTC at
Chief Security Officer
Toronto Transit Commission
Corporate Security Department
1900 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M4S 1Z2
Tel: 416-393-3111
Auditing a School
The Toronto District School Board has developed the Safe Schools Audit as part of the Building a Safe School Plan. The Safe Schools Audit is a diagnostic tool to help determine areas that require improvements and areas that are working well with regard to a school's safety and security measures. The audits are designed for internal school use only. The Safe Schools Committee is representative of students, staff, parents, and community members or a subset of the School Improvement Committee in a school and is responsible for conducting a Safe School Audit.
For more information about your local schools, please contact the Toronto District School Board at:
Toronto District School Board
5050 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M2N 5N8
Tel: 416-397-3000
www.tdsb.on.ca
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