A Safe City

Home safety tips

• Keep doors, windows and garage doors locked even when home
• Leave spare keys with people, not hidden around your home
• Cut back shrubbery around the house to ensure natural surveillance
• Make sure your door can be seen clearly from the road
• Keep your home surrounds well lit at night
• Keep garden sheds, garages and side gates locked and tools away
• Keep your post and meter boxes locked
• Install home alarms
• Property marking
• Keep money, handbags and keys out of view
• Never give personal details over the phone
• Fit a door viewer

For more information on how to reduce opportunities for crime around your home, please refer to the crime prevention through environmental design checklist.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)

CPTED is a crime prevention method to reduce opportunities for crime.  You can keep your home environment safe by following some simple principles:

• Keep your yard maintained to reduce places to hide.
• Increase visibility from the street.
• ​Cut back shrubbery around the house to ensure natural surveillance.
• Keep the area around your home well lit at night.

CPTED on rural properties

Research indicates that opportunity and visibility are key factors for break-ins. If thieves believe they can get into and out of your property easily and without being seen, your property is at risk.

Below are some simple tips to help protect your home and belongings on a rural property:

• Lock house doors and windows when out on the property  
• Consider visibility when designing and erecting new buildings or sheds.  (Ideally these should be in sight of a house).
• Prevent accessibility to your property.  Gates should be as strong as possible, mounted securely to strong corner posts.  Secure gates with quality heavy duty chains and locks.
• Lock gates and sheds when not in use.
• If possible, use heavy duty rollers or metal gates at the entrance to sheds and any outbuildings.
• Consider the installation of movement sensor cameras or closed circuit television (CCTV) if practical.  
• Signs should be placed at entrance points to your property advising that it is “Private Property”.
• Warn intruders of security measures used on your property: electronic monitoring; sensor lights; guard dogs and identification markings.
• Mark your belongings with an engraver or ultra-violet pen with your licence number.

Making it tougher for crooks

Are you making it tougher for crooks?
 
The Making it Tougher for Crooks - Community Safety Starts With You campaign is a partnership between the City of Rockingham, WA Police Community Engagement Division and the two police stations servicing the cities of Rockingham and Mandurah.

The purpose of the campaign is to educate residents and visitors to reduce opportunities for crime. "Benny the Burglar" helps us spread the message. Research shows that most crimes are committed because opportunities were created for an individual to commit a criminal act. Read Benny's top tips for making it tougher for crooks below.

Property Marking with UV Pens

Free UV pens are available to City of Rockingham residents to assist in marking their property to prevent theft.

To ensure the most effective marking of your property, you are encouraged to mark your valuables near the serial number on the item, if there is one, using the state listed on your driver's licence and your driver's licence number.  For example, WA1234567. If you not have a driver's licence, use your passport or Medicare number, or those details of a close relative.

Full instructions for using UV pens to mark your property can be found below

A printable property register is available on the Neighbourhood Watch website.  Registers should be kept in a safe place and a copy sent to your insurance company.  For items that cannot be marked, such as jewellery, photographs should be taken and stored with your property register.

If you would like a free UV pen, please contact us on 9528 0333 or email customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au (limited supply available).

'Benny the Burglar" can’t help but notice when cars are out of sight and full of tempting items that can be sold off quickly. Here are some quick tips to reduce the risk of Benny targeting your vehicles.

• Close garage doors even when parked at home.
• Remove valuables from your vehicle
• If it’s not possible to remove all valuables, put them in the boot before reaching your destination
• Park near lighting or well populated areas whenever possible
• Remove your portable GPS and any holders
• Wind up windows and lock your doors
• Never leave your keys in the ignition or your car on and unattended, even in your driveway.

Dash cloths

A community safety dash cloth lets Benny know that all valuables have been removed from your vehicle and reminds you to secure your valuables.

The cloth can also be used to wipe off suction marks from the windscreen caused by items such as GPS and mobile phone holders, which could tip off thieves that those items are within your vehicle.

Dash cloths are handed out at our community engagement sessions and events, or are available upon request. To request a dash cloth, contact the Community Safety Team on customer@rockingham.wa.gov.au or by calling 9528 0333.

For more safety tips visit WA Police.

Tips to stay safe

• Look up, stay alert and be aware of your surroundings
• Turn down the volume on your earphones
• Walk in well lit, busy areas
• Walk with a friend or group wherever possible
• If you regularly walk by yourself, consider varying your route
• Have someone accompany you to your car
• Plan ahead - how are you going to get home?
• Tell your family, friends and colleagues your whereabouts and when you expect to return.  If your plans change let them know.

Want to know how to stay safe online?

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank.  Through this partnership they have developed a guide to empower Australians to be safe, respectful and resilient online. Access the SOS Guide to Cyber Security and learn how to secure your passwords, identity and privacy as well as find out more about scams, cybercrime and how to take action if you have been a victim of them.

We have three schemes to help residents on low-income pensioner or concession cards feel safer, more secure and connected in their homes, including a Safety Subsidy.  For further information please visit subsidy scheme. 

BEN signs

The Beach Emergency Numbers (BEN) system – named in honour of fatal shark bite victim Ben Gerring – is a coding system that aims to improve emergency response times by installing signs with unique codes at public beach access points. 

In the event of an emergency, the BEN signs are designed to help decrease the response time by pinpointing strategic locations for responders. Callers should quote the BEN sign number and any extra location details displayed on the map.

The signs form part of the State's emergency signage network which spans from Geraldton to Esperance. In the Rockingham mainland area, 67 signs have been installed, plus 14 on Garden Island.

An up-to-date interactive map of BEN signs and other useful functions can be found on the Sharksmart shark activity page (use the drop down menu on the left and select the BEN icon). Alternatively, a printable map of all Local Government Authority signs is available on the Sharksmart website.  

Shark sightings

View the latest reported sightings and tagged shark detections before you hit the beach. 

Help keep everyone safe. Report shark sightings to Water Police on 9442 8600.

Would you like our Community Safety team to visit your street, activity, community group or event?

Our team and its volunteers could attend to promote ways that we can be a connected, safer community. This could include speaking with a community group or providing community safety information at an event.

Community Safety engagement request

Did you know you can report Woolworths trolleys online? For a chance to go into a monthly draw to win $1,000 visit Trolley tracker.

For Coles, Kmart and Target trolleys there is a phone service available on 1800 876 553 which is NOT a freecall number from a mobile phone.

IGA trolleys in the City of Rockingham must be reported to each individual store, but please support our local businesses in retrieving lost property.

As part of our Foreshore Celebration we are seeking talented young artists to highlight the importance of road safety.

One winner in each category will be awarded a bike and helmet and a runner-up in each category will receive a scooter, helmet and pads. Winning designs may be used in promotional material for road safety.  For full entry details, terms and conditions, visit Foreshore Celebration.

Road Safety Competition winners will be announced after the Interactive Constable Care Puppet Show at the Foreshore Celebration on Sunday 27 October 2019.