Community Safety
Tamworth Regional Council is committed to providing a safe community for all. Feeling safe and secure from harm is a crucial part of any healthy community and it is vital that the whole community work together to address common safety concerns.
Community safety is something everyone can get involved in. Through creating community partnerships with Council, residents, businesses, government agencies and police, everyone can work together to share the responsibility for crime prevention.
Crime Prevention Planning
The aim of crime prevention is to make crime harder to commit and to reduce criminal behaviour by changing the social conditions which lead to such behaviour. Tamworth Regional Council is committed to crime prevention and has established the Tamworth Regional Council Crime Prevention Working Group to oversee and develop various measures to make our community safe.
Tamworth Regional Council Crime Prevention Working Group
The broad purpose and aim of the Tamworth Regional Crime Prevention Working Group is to project manage the Tamworth Regional Crime Prevention Plan and oversee:
The Regional Crime Prevention Plan will assist Council, the community, local police and relevant state government departments and agencies to create a safe community environment at a regional level. The Regional Crime Prevention Plan is intended to identify key community safety issues and implement strategies which will prevent crime and reduce the overall impact of crime on the regional community.
Membership of the Working Group is from various organisations in the Tamworth regional community. Members include Councillors and staff, police from the Oxley Local Area Command, Tamworth and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Tamworth and District Liquor Accord, local security providers, the State Member of Parliament for Tamworth and a member of the Coledale Community Centre.
For more information about crime prevention techniques, or information relating to crime prevention please visit the NSW Crime Prevention website.
Graffiti Management Plan 2010 - 2014
Tamworth Regional Council’s Graffiti Management Plan 2010 - 2014, formally adopted December 2010 is a strategy of the Crime Prevention Working Group. It was developed with substantial community consultation and takes a broad based approach to graffiti management, with a key focus on partnership with the community and young people in particular.
The plan provides Tamworth Regional Council staff and community partners with a framework for responding to graffiti in the Local Government Area. The primary purpose of the Plan is to deliver a range of actions designed to work effectively together to reduce graffiti vandalism.
Strategies have been developed around the following themes:
- reporting and removal of graffiti
- education and community awareness
- prevention
- diversion and
- enforcement
In the preparation of the Draft Graffiti Management Plan, a range of stakeholders were consulted including:
- the Crime Prevention Working Group, including the Chamber of Commerce, Oxley Local Area Command, Tamworth and district Liquor Accord
- street artists and
- young people
For more information in about the plan, contact Council’s Community Planning and Development Officer on (02) 6767 5474.
For additional information about how to reduce graffiti around the region, please visit the NSW Government's Stop Graffiti and Vandalism website.
Crime Prevention Projects
The Tamworth Regional Council Crime Prevention Working Group is currently working on a number of crime prevention projects including:
- Tamworth Regional Council received $50,000 from the Attorney General's Department to reduce crime rates in Coledale using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. With this funding, Council is working with Police, Housing NSW and the Coledale Community Centre to upgrade lighting, landscaping and pathways in order to reduce crime rates in the area
- the trial CCTV camera is operating on an ongoing basis and the CCTV Working Group is working on placing a number of cameras in the Tamworth CBD. The CCTV Surveillance System Code of Practice contains the basic standards in accordance with which the Tamworth Regional Council’s CCTV Surveillance System will be operated. The document was formally adopted by Council on 13 April 2010.
- an emergency contacts fridge magnet has been produced with support from Country Energy. The fridge magnet displays all the local emergency and crime prevention numbers. The magnet was distributed to homes across the Tamworth regional community in October 2009. If you would like a free magnet please contact us.
A number of local groups and committees working towards crime prevention also report to the Tamworth Regional Council Crime Prevention Working Group.
Tamworth Local Domestic Violence Committee
The Tamworth Local Domestic Violence Committee has also been established to combat and raise awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault in the community. Membership of the committee includes representatives of the Tamworth Women’s Refuge, Department of Community Services, Hunter New England Health, NSW Department of Housing, Tamworth Regional Council, Police, Centacare and Centrelink. Current projects of the Committee include:
- the ‘Toilet Door Sticker’ Campaign is being rolled out throughout Tamworth and surrounding communities. The sticker provides phone numbers of local services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault
- a domestic violence card has been produced housing all the important information and emergency numbers to assist victims of domestic violence
- a ‘Phone Safety Program’ has been established by the Committee, thanks to the support of Telstra. The aim of this project is to provide mobile phones with sim cards to victims of domestic violence who do not own a phone or cannot afford one, in order to provide a means of communication to emergency and/or support services
The Tamworth and District Liquor Accord
The Tamworth and District Liquor Accord was established in 2005 and comprises members involved with local hotels, pubs and clubs. The Accord is committed to preventing crime in and around licensed premises in the community. Tamworth Regional Council supports the Accord as part of the Regional Crime Prevention Plan.
Ocsober
Life education along with Healthy Harold are motivating people from Tamworth Region to abstain from drinking alcohol for one month, during October. Money raised will be used to support drug and health education. Please visit the Ocsober website for more information.