Meet and greet your police

South West police are ramping up a crime prevention campaign by hitting the region’s roads this month.

Crime prevention and diversity officer Sen. Const. Neale Horsley and youth crime intervention officer Sen. Const. Jeff Cooke will be taking the Mobile Police Facility to a number of regional towns from May 20.

It comes as police have been pushing awareness and tips around crime prevention across Bunbury over recent months.

Sen. Const. Horsley said the five-day road trip was about police presence and providing smaller communities the opportunity to meet their local cops.

“The purpose is to visit towns and make a presence within towns, bringing a crime prevention message and offering some information to the local residents in those areas,” Sen. Const. Horsley said.

“It’s a lot of areas that probably don’t see a real lot of police presence, maybe because of the isolation of some of the areas.

“This is a chance for them to come down and speak to police, they can have a coffee with a coppa as well – we’ll have the urn going, so they can drop in and say hello.

“Even if they don’t have any real issues, we’re going to have the local police from each station and they can meet them and help with local questions.”

He said the team was also pushing its Crime Stoppers and Dob in a Dealer campaigns.

“Any information they do give us can be just that little piece in the puzzle that we do need so we can solve some of the crimes and also rid the streets of these drug issues that we do have down in the South West,” he said.

Hot topics and tips are expected to include home and vehicle security, while police will also address an increasing number of holidaymakers leaving their accommodation unsecured.

“We’re having a lot of issues with accommodation down south where a lot of people are coming down on holidays, they get into holiday mode and they’re not locking up their chalets and rooms at resorts,” Sen. Const. Horsley said.

“We’ve had quite a few incidents where people have actually lost a considerable amount of property and money as a result of not locking their doors on chalets or their rooms.

“Crime prevention is really common sense, like locking your house up when you go out, locking your back door if you’re working out in the front garden for example or locking your vehicles and not leaving valuable in your vehicles as well.”

The roadshow kicks off in Busselton and Dunsborough on May 20, then Margaret River and Augusta on May 21, followed by Nannup and Pemberton on May 22 and Manjimup and Bridgetown the following day.

It will wrap up at Donnybrook on May 24.