THE key to maintaining our beautiful community lies with reporting anti-social behaviour and crime. This is the message the Wingham Advancement Group (WAG) want you to take on board after last week's charter meeting with council and local police.
The August 23 meeting saw local police superintendent Paul Fehon and senior constable Ray Slade brief WAG members, council's mayor Paul Hogan and general manager Gerard José, and invited representatives from Wingham Chamber of Commerce.
Supt Fehon gave a very comprehensive briefing on crime trends across the MGL and compared the statistics with Wingham.
The discussion on how to prevent or reduce anti-social behaviour commenced with a briefing on the effectiveness and cost benefit of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) by SC Slade. The consensus of the meeting was that experience in other towns in Australia and overseas indicated that it was very expensive and results did not warrant the effort and expense by the community.
The members of WAG, reflecting community sentiment, asked "why aren't our local police officers able to be in Wingham to deter and be on the spot when incidents and crime occurs?" Supt Fehon explained that, as with every other area of government, resources are limited and there are simply not enough police to have an officer in every town in NSW, just waiting for a crime to occur. It is simply not cost effective.
The question was then raised: 'How then to combat crime in Wingham?' Supt Fehon explained that in an era where police resources are somewhat limited in a large urban, regional and rural command, intelligence, mobility and communications are the key to modern policing. He explained that highly mobile police teams in vehicles with GPS, sophisticated communications and computer equipment are able to respond quickly to crime scenes or likely social disorder, as witnessed recently on several occasions in Wingham. The police strategy is to concentrate resources where they are needed rather than to have some police under utilised while others are stretched and vulnerable. The results and statistics bear this out.
Another aspect of discussion provided this insight of great import to Wingham - Police resources are allocated on the basis of statistical evidence. What this means is that if Wingham does not report incidents and crime, than the numbers are 'not on the board' and we will not receive resources or police officers in the town.
The key message from the police was information from the public. We, the community in Wingham, must provide information to our police force if we want to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in our town. Information provides data for analysis and results in intelligence - and that leads to police investigation and usually prosecutions. If you see a crime being committed or something that requires urgent police attention - ring 000.
However, if you see someone or something, like property damage or vandalism that occurred very recently or overnight, report it to the Police Report Line on 131 444. This number is a confidential 24 hour service that logs all calls into the computer.
The clear message to the community of Wingham is that reducing crime and anti-social behaviour is a team effort with the public providing information and the police acting upon it.
So there is the challenge to Wingham. Get involved! Make the Call! Report crime and incidents to 131 444.
Email a friend