THE CRESCENT Head community is in the process of creating initiatives in partnership with the Kempsey Police to combat crime in the beach side town.
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The last 12 months has seen crime escalate in the small coastal village which has mobilised residents to take action.
In January the Macleay Argus reported that in the last four months alone from mid-September 2015 to January 27, 2016 Crescent Head experienced a significant increase in criminal activity.
- The statistics show the Crescent Head community experienced:
- eleven reported 'break and enter dwelling'
- five 'break and enter non dwelling'
- nine 'steal from dwelling'
- 'six stolen vehicles'
- three 'steal from motor vehicle'
- seven 'assaults'
- three 'malicious damage'
- one 'fraud'
Mid North Coast Crime prevention officer senior constable Steve Cherry at the time asked local residents to look after each other and the Mid North Coast Police Command will continue to deploy a number of resources at Crescent Head.
“We ask people to be on the lookout for each other and to lock things away at night and to notice what is going on in their community but most of all please report all crimes to your local police," Constable Cherry said.
Due to a number of crimes committed at Crescent Head in December 2014, the Crescent Head Crime Fighters Facebook page was born which informs local people of crime issues in the community, sometimes just moments after a crime has allegedly been committed.
Members of the Crescent Head Crime Fighters Facebook page are now moving forward in combating crime by creating community initiatives in conjunction with the Kempsey Police and the Kempsey Shire Council to not only keep them informed of criminal activities, but to immobilise them into action.
A Crescent Head Crime Fighters Facebook page administrator, who would like to remain anonymous, told the Macleay Argus the recent increase in criminal activity in the town has reaffirmed that the community wants to be proactive.
“We have been in discussion with the council and the Kempsey Police to see what initiatives we could do in conjunction with them about community awareness and safety because we just don’t want to sit around and react to crime but we want to prevent crime,” the administrator said.
“We would like to make residents aware that if they see something suspicious to report it to police but we also want to make them aware that they can also look after each other.
“Some of the initiatives we are discussing with the council and the police are letter box drops informing people how they can protect their homes as well as know you neighbour initiatives and how people can take some responsibility prior to crime happening.
“I’ll be meeting with the police again on Tuesday and I want to also discuss the possibilities of bringing back a full time police officer to the community or at least having an officer here permanently during the peak holiday period.
“I also want to discuss a community message system that can be circulated in the community to let them know what is happening and what actions are taking place when crimes are committed.”