New Neighbourhood Watch groups spring into action in Canberra’s growing suburbs

Neighbourhood Watch is making a comeback in Canberra’s suburbs as a way to connect the community in a fast-growing city of time-poor professionals

Casey Neighbourhood Watch area co-ordinator Laurie Blackall, ACT Neighbourhood Watch president Margaret Pearson and Kambah West co-ordinator David Harding. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

• Introducing The Canberra Star
• School fire ‘suspicious’: police

A yearning to stay connected amid Canberra’s fast-growing population is driving a resurgence in Neighbourhood Watch in the suburbs.

New groups have sprung up in Casey, Kambah West, Scullin and Turner, where neighbours have banded together to foster a sense of community in an increasingly time-poor society.

A spike in certain crimes has been the impetus behind the formation of some groups while others simply want neighbours to look out for one another and pay attention to what is happening in their suburb to be the community’s eyes on the street.

Kambah West Neighbourhood Watch area co-ordinator David Harding said burglaries in Kambah had increased from 64 in 2013 to 110 in 2017 and 86 last year, bucking the downward trend in burglaries in Tuggeranong.

Mr Harding recalls feeling slightly “embarrassed” hearing friends discussing this spike of crime in his own suburb, given he had spent a good portion of his life working in counter-terrorism. So he decided to do something about it.

“My wife is very much into building community and so we tried to find a way we could both help and Neighbourhood Watch fitted that bill,” Mr Harding said.

ACT Policing data shows that in Turner there were 16 burglaries in the first quarter of this year, which is double the number in each of last year’s quarters.

Florey Neighbourhood Watch area co-ordinator Sharon Leigh-Hazell said their group started after a spate of burglaries in the area.

But then it turned into a crime prevention tool just by being a vehicle for neighbours to connect.

ACT Neighbourhood Watch president Margaret Pearson said it was all about fostering a sense of community and looking out for your neighbours.

“People want to be part of something bigger than driving into their driveways at night and not seeing anyone because they’re working so late,” she said. “It’s crime prevention through community building.”

She said a generational change was beginning to usher in a new era for Neighbourhood Watch which was slowly cottoning on to social media.

The Scullin and Florey groups now both have Facebook pages.

But Ms Leigh-Hazell said the newsletters, customised for each suburb, are still their main form of communication.

After all, there won’t be any eyes on the street if all the street’s eyes are glued to screens.

In Casey, assaults have steadily risen from 9 in 2014 to 29 in 2018. However there’s been a more promising start to the year with two assaults between January and March.

There were 10 burglaries between January and March in the suburb compared to nine for the whole of last year.

But Casey Neighbourhood Watch area co-ordinator Laurie Blackall said the catalyst for their group’s formation wasn’t any crime trend but rather a desire to unite the community as more people move into the new part of their suburb — Springbank Rise.

“It’s about building a community who look out for each other which in itself will deter crime, by knowing what’s happening around the neighbourhood and knowing which car belongs where.

“It’s more about deterring crime than fighting crime.”

ACT Neighbourhood Watch president Margaret Pearson said the groups in Coombs and Moncrieff had been going for about a year.

ACT Neighbourhood Watch vice president Clare McGrath said it wasn’t just about looking out for crime but also for your neighbours.

For example she had not seen her neighbour walk past for several days with her dog and inquiries revealed she’d had a fall.

One of her other neighbours helped bust a drug ring in Ainslie after she noticed the same car pull up outside a house every day at 6.58pm.