Relaunch for Neighbourhood Watch

Neighbourhood Watch in Woy Woy is set to be relaunched after a meeting attended by about 80 people gave overwhelming support to the proposal.

The meeting held at the Everglades Country Club last Tuesday was called by police after they had been approached by concerned residents.

Crime manager for Brisbane Water Patrol, Detective Chief Inspector Dennis O'Toole, opened the meeting saying the police had been approached by several people asking for more police to be assigned to the area.

"However, this meeting is about Neighbourhood Watch," he said, "although I will answer questions on your other concerns later."

He said it was good to see such a large gathering of people and he wanted to reiterate that the police were on the community's side.

The meeting soon turned to a discussion on the perceived need of more police.

"People who make the rules are the politicians and the police and community are bound by the legislation," Chief Inspector O'Toole said.

"It would be nice to have more police and I think we have made a step in the right direction with the extra police (recently employed at Brisbane Water Patrol), hopefully they will be permanent.

"The police are concerned with crime too.

"We have incidents when we have continually arrested people who are then granted bail.

"And incidents where people on bail are arrested again and put before court and then granted bail again, which is very frustrating for the police too.

"Drugs are also a concern and source of frustration."

He said he doubted whether an extra 100 police would solve the problem.

He said since basing a patrol at Woy Woy there had been a dramatic decrease in crime.

"We've recognised Woy Woy is a high risk area."

Chief inspector O'Toole said juvenile offenders were frustrating as many of them were well acquainted with the law and knew their rights.

He said offenders should have rights, but current legislation made policing difficult.

"Unless people like you voice your concerns to the Premier and Marie Andrews, the laws won't be changed," he said.

"The rules have been changed time and time again.

"We know who is breaking and entering and who is stealing.

"It appears the rights of the offender overrides the rest of the community."

Chief Inspector O'Toole said he was finding it hard to keep morale up in his force.

"It's getting to the stage where we need electronic records of an offence, with police officer evidence not necessarily accepted in court," he said.

He said Brisbane Water Patrol had the second highest level of police on long term sick leave with 83 per cent of those related to stress and was the seventh highest for the number of jobs coming in over a 24-hour period.

There are 80 commands in the state.

Senior Sergeant Irene Juergens said the nature of society had changed.

"When I started in 1966, four people were arrested for drugs. It's probably four a day now.

"We now deal with families that have never worked. There is no work ethic.

"As parents and grandparents, we may not like it but, by the time our children leave the secondary education system, they will have been offered drugs."

She said the situation was made more difficult because there were young people who did not want to go to their homes because they were abused or sexually assaulted there.

With an increase in security at banks, criminals were looking for softer targets, she said.

She said Neighbourhood Watch had led to arrests and convictions of criminals.

There was no need necessarily to buy expensive alarm systems.

Simple measures such as engraving property with a driving licence number deterred most criminals.

"Thieves take untraceable things," she said.

Other measures she suggested included as putting a '"Do not disturb. Shift worker sleeping" sign on the door, leaving the radio on and leaving a pair of men's boots on the front porch when the house was empty.

"Never let people in unless you know who they are," she said.

Carl Spears, August 19