How Data Can Help—and Harm—Community Safety Programs

The Promise of Data

Data can be a powerful tool for building safer communities. Properly used, it can:

• Spot patterns: Identify hotspots for crime, hazards, or social issues.
• Measure impact: Track whether prevention programs actually work.
• Allocate resources: Direct funding and staff where the need is greatest.
• Promote transparency: Public dashboards can build trust in institutions.

The Risks and Harms

But data can also reinforce inequities and mistrust when used without care:

• Over-surveillance: Marginalized communities may face intensified monitoring.
• Bias baked in: Historical policing data reflects discriminatory practices, which predictive tools can amplify.
• Privacy concerns: Residents may fear that data about them will be misused or shared.
• Community exclusion: Programs often collect data about communities, not with them.

Canadian Context

• Carding and street checks: Data practices in Ontario disproportionately targeted racialized residents, eroding trust.
• Open data portals: Some municipalities share crime and safety stats, but accessibility and interpretation vary.
• Community safety plans: Provinces like Ontario require data-driven planning, but many municipalities lack capacity to use data responsibly.
• Indigenous data sovereignty: Nations pushing for control of their own safety and wellness data.

The Challenges

• Consent and control: Who decides what gets collected, and how it’s used?
• Oversimplification: Numbers can flatten complex social issues into misleading stats.
• Technical literacy: Communities need tools and training to interpret and use data.
• Trust deficit: Decades of misuse mean skepticism is often justified.

The Opportunities

• Community ownership: Let residents co-design data collection and governance.
• Transparency safeguards: Make methods and limitations clear alongside the numbers.
• Ethical frameworks: Data use grounded in human rights and equity principles.
• Capacity-building: Invest in local groups to analyze and apply data themselves.

The Bigger Picture

Data is not neutral. It can either illuminate pathways to prevention or deepen old patterns of exclusion. The difference lies in who controls it, how it’s framed, and whether communities are empowered as co-owners of the information.

The Question

If data has the power to both help and harm, then the issue isn’t whether to collect it — but how. Which leaves us to ask:
how can Canada build community safety programs where data empowers residents instead of policing them?