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The role of the community safety practitioner is a newly emerging expertise in local government. A survey conducted with local authorities reveals a relatively fluid and unstructured profession of highly educated or experienced individuals with heavy workloads. Practitioners inhabit a contested policy terrain in which they express a preference for a social regeneration agenda rather than narrower crime specific strategies.

The definition of community safety is broad and the role of community safety officers has reflected that breadth. This article points to examples of the variety of structures and responsibilities that have emerged since 1998. It argues for a better definition of the role of the community safety officer to enhance the professionalism of the practitioners.

The authors discuss trends in crime prevention and community safety particular to Australia. They report on research examining the role local government community safety officers (CSOs) play in the formation and implementation of crime prevention strategies in their home state of Victoria. The paper is based upon interview data conducted with CSOs and will assess key challenges and problems encountered in the management and implementation of strategies at the local level. Issues assessed include the role of community safety practitioners as ‘change managers’. Broader lessons relating to training, capacity building and strengthening the role of local government are drawn from the research that are of relevance to community safety policy in the UK and abroad.

This article reviews the progress of local partnership to date, first by examining the contents of the recent Audit Commission review report on Community Safety Partnerships, and then by providing a critique of this report, based upon the author's own research and knowledge of local community safety policy and practice.

This paper describes how a problem solving approach was used to identify good practice lessons from four community safety projects implemented in Birmingham, and how these lessons were disseminated to meet the different needs of practitioners, managers and a wider community safety audience.

The article proposes a schematic model of how community safety is related to changes in local housing markets ‐ particularly those characterised by low demand and market failure. The model is presented as an example of strategic planning for ‘joined‐up’ working in civil and neighbourhood renewal.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the local dimensions of the “crime decline”.

Two focus groups and 15 semi-structured interviews with local practitioners.

Some offences have fallen significantly in the case study site in the last ten to 12 years. Local practitioners tended to explain these declines with reference to local services and programmes. These declines have potentially contributed to the reduction in crime prevention infrastructure and there is concern that funding will be reduced as crime falls.

The findings have been generated from a single case study site. While aspects of the findings resonate beyond the case study area, there are some characteristics of the site that limit the application of the findings to other areas.

The findings from this research have few practical implications. The research sought to understand dimensions of local crime and the impact on local activities.

This research provides some insights into crime trends and local responses to crime. The findings will be of interest to crime prevention and community safety practitioners and policy makers.

There has been little analysis of the impact of the “crime decline” on local communities and community safety infrastructure. Therefore this paper is original and adds to the growing knowledge of the “crime decline”.

Simon Harding shares his opinions on the development and future of the community safety profession.

In her regular column examining key issues facing community safety practitioners, Sarah Morton from Matrix Research and Consultancy considers evaluation.Everyone agrees that evaluation allows services to systematically investigate the effectiveness of interventions, determining their value, allowing for evidence‐informed decision‐making and increasing the accountability of such decisions.