Broken Hill’s Barrier Police have more officers on patrol than usual in response to community concerns about ongoing break and enters around the city.
With six arrests for break and enters in the last week, and eight domestic violence incidents reported, police are urging people across the Barrier region, and visitors, to look out for each other by reporting suspicious or concerning behaviour or activities.
NSW Police are currently running Operation Regional Mongoose, a high-visibility police operation to tackle serious property-related crime committed predominately by young offenders, so Barrier Police now have more resources to help keep people’s property safe, but they say residents still need to help themselves too.
While a western region-wide intelligence drive operation is providing dedicated staff to support our local police officers to better manage property crime, Barrier PD Detective Acting Inspector, Matt Harmer, is reminding residents to lock everything, especially after 9pm.
“9pm Routine is a reminder to residents around Australia about five simple steps to keep themselves, their property, and possessions safer,” says Acting Inspector Harmer.
The five police 9pm Routine reminders before you go to bed are:
- Remove valuables from your car.
- Lock up your car and house.
- Check CCTV is working.
- Switch on downstairs or outside alarms at night.
- Report suspicious activity.
“With locals reporting seeing groups of people walking around Broken Hill streets at night wearing hoodies, we now have more police officers on shift. So, if residents see any suspicious behaviour in their neighbourhood, we’re asking them to call the station – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – to report it to police so we can take a look,” Acting Inspector Harmer said.
“If anyone has something unusual on their CCTV, we encourage people to let us know in case it helps in our investigations on other matters,” he said.
To report suspicious activity to police, call the Broken Hill Police Station 24/7 on 8087 0299 or drop into the station at 80 Blende St.
