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Community Safety And Crime Prevention Officers Appointed

Working towards a safer community for all Gippslanders

By Carol McCormack - 30th July 2002 - Back to News

Two part time community safety and crime prevention officers have been appointed for the Safer Gippsland Project. Dale Simmons and Nikki Drummond will be involved in a variety of activities including local community safety assessments, evaluating and reporting on crime prevention outcomes; and implementing the Safer Streets and Homes Strategy and Piloting a Safer Design initiative in the Gippsland region.

Mr Simmons said the Safer Gippsland project, involved the Victorian Police, a regional Management forum, and localised safety committees liasing with various community groups working towards a safer community for all Gippslanders.

The Safer Gippsland Project is a partnership developed between Gippsland Local Government Network members, Latrobe City, Baw Baw Shire, Bass Coast Shire, East Gippsland Shire, South Gippsland Shire and Wellington Shire; and Crime Prevention Victoria (Department of Justice).

Mr Simmons said the Safer Streets and Homes strategy recently announced by Minister Haermeyer and a Victorian Government initiative, would play a role in the Safer Gippsland Project by focussing on preventing family violence, improving safety in streets and neighbourhoods and reducing offending and violence by young people.

"Safer Design is a major component of the program which incorporates crime prevention through environmental design. This looks at how good physical design and layout of buildings, neighbourhoods and recreational areas can help reduce crime and increase perceptions of personal safety. Safer Gippsland and the Department of Infrastructure are developing a Gippsland training program for local government as well as business sector, to be delivered during the latter half of this year.

In welcoming the appointments, spokesperson for the Safer Gippsland Project, Henk Harberts, said programs that pursued a safer environment through engendering community responses to safety and crime prevention had the best chance of success.

"The lesson the world over is that if we want to increase the level of safety and security in our community, there has to be a real involvement with that community at a grass roots level. By providing resources to specifically seek out community concerns, while building better working environments and relationships between local communities and safety and law enforcement authorities, we will positively impact on the lives of Gippslanders," Mr Harberts said.

Mr Simmons said the community is being encouraged to contact himself or Ms Drummond to discuss any issues or ideas they may have to increase community safety and reduce crime in Gippsland.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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