Dubbo Regional Council: Community safety and crime prevention strategy up for debate

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CCTV grabs from Dubbo Crime Reports Facebook page. Photo: Facebook

A crime prevention plan in the state’s central west is up for debate, following the recent push for a regional crime inquiry led by the Country Mayors Association of NSW.

Dubbo Regional Council’s community, culture and places division is seeking a $10,000 endorsement from council to commit to the preparation, implementation and management of a community safety and crime prevention strategy.

This comes after a majority of Dubbo councillors rejected the push for a crime summit despite growing tension in the community in May 2023.

Dubbo Regional Council offices. Picture: Ryan Young

At Thursday night’s meeting, the committee is expected to raise concerns of regional youth crime in the area and note a strategy moving forward.

According to council staff, there is an expectation from Dubbo residents for government and non-government social and crime prevention service providers to be seen active in the community.

“Over the past number of months, council staff have conducted a review of how community safety is being managed in the local government context,” council staff said.

“There is a noticeable feeling within our community for council to be seen to be ‘doing something’ to address actual and perceived community safety and law and order issues in our local government area.”

In September and October last year, four workshops were held with council committees which outlined the need for non-government service providers and a greater increase of policing and judicial practices.

In 2023, Tamworth Regional Council developed a five-year community safety and crime prevention safety plan which has “demonstrated an understanding of the region’s crime profile”.

The committee stated that in order for the proposed plan to be successful, community safety initiatives, youth strategy and crime prevention priorities should be considered together.

Dubbo man breaking into a car, Dubbo

Despite having a Youth Council in Dubbo, council staff said having an established youth strategy would provide a guiding document through youth engagement, prioritise objectives and establish strategies, which council currently does not obtain.

“There is already a lot of work being done in the community safety and crime prevention space by council staff now, either directly through the services it provides or indirectly through its collaboration with inter-agency groups,” council staff said.

“The presence or absence of a formal community safety and crime prevention plan will not adversely impact that work.

“It is important to design that plan well to set it up for success.”

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