Wagga police to combat property crime with safety campaign

Riverina Police District Inspector Jill Gibson said the campaign is one of the many ways police are hoping to get the message across to community members to take the necessary measures to prevent opportunists.

"At the moment we are having an issue with property crime," Inspector Gibson said.

"Sixty per cent of all of our property crime, stolen motor vehicles, break and enters, steal from motor vehicles, involve unlocked doors and unlocked cars.

"I know we live in the country and we love the safety of that, but you do need to start locking your vehicles, locking your doors and looking out for each other."

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Police are also looking to work with local organisations to get word of the campaign out to the community.

"We have developed a safety tips newsletter which uses QR codes to take you directly to our corporate website which gives you safety tips around home security, vehicle safety, online safety, protection from fraud and how to holiday safely - so looking at bush walking or when you're out on the water or even when you're staying at a caravan park," Inspector Gibson said.

Wagga is not the only location being plagued by property crime offences.

"Property crime is a problem across NSW, Wagga is not the only target of that, but what we are seeing is that its opportunistic crime, it's leaving your car open, leaving your laptop in your car, your wallet, leaving your car keys in your car," she said.

With several arrests made in recent months being offenders aged 25 years old and under, Inspector Gibson said police want to protect these children from going down that path.

"These young people we come across aren't breaking windows, they're taking what they can get, so we really need the communities to help to try and stop these crimes from happening and in turn that will help protect those kids from staying out of the criminal justice system because the opportunities not there," she said.

Inspector Gibson is urging residents to report property crime incidents to the police.

Tips and tricks can be found at police.nsw.gov.au.

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