Crime Prevention & Community Safety

Peppermint Grove Neightbourhood Watch & Community Safety

Neighbours Supporting Neighbours

Neighbourhood Watch is a series of programs aimed at making individuals aware of crime prevention initiatives and activities in and around their home and local community.

It is about working together as a community to improve personal safety and household security. Most importantly, it is about encouraging interaction and a sense of responsibility between neighbours and communities.

Neighbourhood Watch is about residents, their local neighbourhood, the wider community and the WA Police working together to establish and maintain a safer community by:

• reducing violence, crime and fear;
• building a safer community;
• preventing crime that affects you;
• enhancing effective communication; and
• developing community spirit.

Why is it needed?

A Police Officer on patrol may not know what is normal in your street and may not recognise a stranger in your yard.

You and your neighbours are in a position to observe and report anything of a suspicious nature to Police.

Most neighbours already observe activities in their street, particularly if it is not normal; however, many people do not do anything about suspicious activities because they do not know what to do or if their neighbours would appreciate their involvement.

Where possible we encourage neighbours to join the Peppermint Grove Neighbourhood Watch. The ideal situation is for the houses on each side of you and opposite you to be in Neighbourhood Watch. This means that there are more “eyes in your neighbourhood” looking after your interests.

We encourage all our Street Representatives to attend and Neighbourhood Watch participants to attend committee meetings which are held on a quarterly basis at the Shire administration office.

Please feel free to provide any anecdotes about what has been happening in your neighbourhood or any other information that may be useful to the Co-ordinator by contacting her on 9384 0099 or by email comsafety@peppermintgrove.wa.gov.au

We value and appreciate your comments!

As a member of Neighbourhood Watch you can borrow or obtain the following resources from the Shire office or by contacting the Community Safety Coordinator on 9384 0099:

An electric engraver FREE of charge to mark your valuables.
• Stickers.
• Fridge magnets.
• Information packs.

Peppermint Grove Neighbourhood Watch & Community Safety Committee (CS&CPWP).

The Neighbourhood Watch Committee and the Community Safety and Crime Prevention Working Party have joined together and has now become the Peppermint Grove Neighbourhood Watch & Community Safety Committee (CS&CPWP).

The Office of Crime Prevention (OCP) recently advised the Shire that no further funding will be provided to draft a new three-year Community Safety & Crime Prevention (CSCP) plan for the Shire of Peppermint Grove which expires at the end of 2008 and has suggested that the existing plan be extended a further three years. To download a copy of the plan click here.

The current plan, in consultation with CS&CPWP Committe and other state government groups and the local community is both a strategic and practical document that has guided the CS&CPWP and will guide the actions of the new safety committee over the next three years.

The committee will review the current strategies in our plan and look at reinforcing the existing crime prevention messages and strategies that are working well in our community at this time. They will also look at evidence based programs that other local governments have introduced to prevent crime and increase safety and consider running those programs in our community.

If you have any questions relating to the new committee, would like to join, or pursue wider community safety issues please contact the Community Safety Co-ordinator on (08) 9384 0099 or email comsafety@peppermintgrove.wa.gov.au

The meeting dates for the Peppermint Grove Neighbourhood Watch & Community Safety Committee meeting are:

• Thursday - 26 March 2009 at 6.00pm
• Thursday - 24 September 2009 at 6.00pm
• Wednesday - 9th December 2009 at 6.00pm

Your Local Police Station

Our local police station is Cottesloe Police Station, which is located in Curtin Avenue Cottesloe. Counter enquiries can be made between 8am – 4pm. To speak to a local police officer during business hours you can ring 9286 7777. If you require police attendance please telephone 131444.

Crime Prevention Resource Centre

The local Crime Prevention Resource Centre is located at the Claremont Showgrounds and the Crime Prevention Officer is only too happy to provide up to date information on security systems and fittings as well as further information on Neighbourhood Watch and Community Policing. A free security appraisal of your home or business by a crime prevention officer is also available to Peppermint Grove residents. Contact phone number is 9284 3999.

Neighbourhood Watch is protection of your property and way of life through communication and co-operation between neighbours.

Neighbourhood Watch WAonline

If you do not wish to join the Peppermint Grove Neighbourhood Watch program and would like to subscribe to Neighbourhood Watch WAonline to receive regular short emails from your local police about crime prevention issues affecting our district, visit the Neighbourhood Watch WAonline website.

Trials

Solar Light -

CS&CPWP committee together with Council are committed to reducing the incidence of preventable crime and preserving our way of life. The Pilot Solar Light Laneway project will help to achieve this goal.

The project came about after various burglaries were occurring through access off the Forrest and Leake Street’s Right of Way (laneway). Local police advised that one of the reasons for these opportunistic crimes was the lack of security lighting in the laneway. After researching the various security lighting options on offer the committee decided to trial Solar powered lighting even though it incurs a significant capital cost. Extending the electrical grid was prohibitively high for an ordinary street light and the greenhouse gas saving for installing a solar powered streetlight with batteries instead of a standard Western Power 80 Watt mercury vapour streetlight was 324 kg per annum. To offset the high capital cost of the Solar light the committee applied for a $10,000 grant from the Office of Crime Prevention and then installed the light in the T-junction area of the Laneway.

The committee will be trialing the project over a number of years to ascertain whether burglary statistics are reduced in the pilot area and whether the local residents find that solar light is effective in lighting the laneway. Residents are encouraged to contact council with their views.