Campaign aims to improve community safety

CRIME Stoppers Victoria is encouraging the community to help make the City of Greater Geelong safer through its Safeguard Your Community campaign.

The organisation launched the campaign yesterday (Wednesday, August 19) in conjunction with Victoria Police.

The campaign comes after Crime Statistics Agency Victoria announced a 17.9 per cent increase in aggravated burglaries in Geelong for the year ending in March 2020 from the previous 12-months.

Aggravated burglary is when someone is in the property when it is being broken into. Unlocked doors are the most common method of entry by offenders.

In addition to encouraging people to lock up and secure their properties, Crime Stoppers Victoria chief executive Stella Smith said it was important for people to be vigilant in reporting criminal activity.

“While coronavirus might be invisible to the naked eye, criminal activity is not. Aggravated burglaries are occurring in the City of Greater Geelong and we want help from the public to catch the offenders of these serious crimes,” Ms Smith said.

“We want anyone with information to know they can contact Crime Stoppers; they don’t need to tell us who they are, we don’t use caller ID and we don’t trace IP addresses.”

Detective Senior Sergeant of Geelong Tasking and Crime Intervention Taskforce Stephen Pucar said it was important the community and the police work together to make the region as safe as possible.

“Keeping each other safe is a community-effort and we need the community to share what they know. Individuals lock up their properties, police lock up offenders – it’s about keeping everyone safe by working together.”

People can make confidential reports to Crime Stoppers by phoning 1800 333 000 or heading to crimestoppersvic.com.au.