Local groups join forces to fight crime

Local groups join forces to fight crime

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June MacDonald chatting to Sergeant Simon Rimmer at the podcast launch. Photograph – Richard Polden.

A new podcast has launched as a collaboration between Armadale Neighbourhood Watch (NHW), the West Australian Police Force (WAPOL), the City of Armadale, Advanced Personnel Management (APM), and Heritage FM.

The ‘Community Crime Prevention Podcasts’ were on Tuesday, September 21 to assist members of the community with accessing important information about safety and taking care.

Chair of Armadale Neighbourhood Watch, June MacDonald, said the City of Armadale approached them to discuss the option to collaborate with APM, who work with people from NDIS.

“When we met with APM, they brought a gentleman who is vision impaired, and he said for a lot of people that they look after they can’t read or they have difficulties with accessibility, so something like a podcast would be very handy,” she said.

“We thought this could be quite exciting to approach a cohort that we hadn’t really been involved with before.

“I contacted our state office and they set up interviews with police and crime stoppers and we all did a podcast to do with crime prevention from varying aspects.

“Our part was to talk on neighbourhood watch, what it is, what we do, how people can join and that sort of thing.

“Police officers spoke on things like scams and burglary prevention.

“A lot of burglary prevention is locking windows, or cars, or leave valuables in their car that are attractive to burglars.

“It was a local project with our local police officers and our Neighbourhood Watch.”

The new Armadale Superintendent Mark Longman, attended the launch of the podcast on Tuesday.

“Neighbourhood Watch being a volunteer organisation provides invaluable support to the police. June and her team at NHW are to be applauded for this initiative in getting the NHW message to a broader section of the community,” he said.

The free podcast can be accessed via the internet through the Neighbourhood Watch website or a QR Code.