Corio Village initiative to make space safer

CORIO Village has launched its “Respect, Protect, Connect” campaign, a new initiative geared at making the popular shopping centre a safer space for the community.

The initiative, which includes a zero tolerance approach to antisocial behaviour and regular meetings with senior personnel from Corio Police to identify further safety opportunities, began this week and was developed in line with the long-term vision of improving the experience at the shopping centre and ensuring the safety of all members of the community.

Corio Village centre manager Curtis Gillett said it was incredibly important to provide a place to shop where all customers, retailers and staff felt welcome, safe and respected.

“We have introduced Respect, Protect, Connect because we wanted to take a proactive approach to some of the concerns of our patrons and show our community that we not only value their safety, we also appreciate their feedback.

“We are introducing more than ten key initiatives that cover everything from internal and external lighting upgrades for clearer visibility through to daily general retailer welfare checks that will improve lines of communication between retailer loss prevention officers and centre security.

“We have already seen the positive impacts of body-worn cameras for security personnel, who will now also wear high-visibility uniforms whilst on duty so that they are more easily identifiable while patrolling the centre, and we believe that this will also assist in deterring antisocial behaviour.”

She said one of the best parts of the campaign was the ‘Coffee with a Cop’ initiative, where members from Corio Police will visit the centre monthly to engage with the community at one of our cafes.

“This will provide an opportunity for our patrons to connect with local law enforcement over a complimentary cup of coffee and discuss what is happening in the centre and wider community. We will have activities for children so that they can get involved as well.”

As part of the campaign, external Emergency Marker Beacons have been installed to direct emergency services to precise locations for improved triple zero response times, the CCTV system has been upgraded to capture clear images of any incidents, and there is dedicated electronic reporting to Corio Police for all crime-related incidents.

For more information on the campaign, head to the Corio Village website.