Residents on crime watch

A group of Katanning residents have banded together to form a Neighbourhood Watch association in an attempt to keep would-be criminals accountable and assist police in the fight against petty crimes.

Leading the organisational effort is Garth Human, who said the group was still in its very early stages, but there had been good support for the idea on the Katanning Crime Reports Facebook page.

“The house I’ve been renting has been broken into twice, so I have been getting frustrated and people I have spoken to have also been getting frustrated and we thought someone needs to step in and do something,” he said.

“It’s the petty low-level crime and the antisocial stuff that people are fed up with.”

Mr Human said he hoped a network of concerned residents all keeping an eye out for one another would act as a deterrent to any potential opportunistic criminals.

Katanning police officer-in- charge Senior Sergeant Simon Underwood said police were supportive of the concept.

“The concept behind Neighbourhood Watch is simply for community members to be participants within their own immediate neighbourhood by knowing who their neighbours are and their usual visitors and who aren’t,” he said.

“It’s those people or cars that should raise the suspicion of a community member to watch and report any suspicious person or vehicles for police to then respond to.

“Whether we talk to our neighbours or not, we still know them by sight, their car and their visitors.

“It’s when we see someone or something in our street we haven’t seen before that should raise our concern and this is simply Neighbourhood Watch.”

Katanning Shire chief executive Julian Murphy said he was aware there was a move to get a Neighbourhood Watch group operational in the town once more and the Shire was also supportive.

“Separate to this group we have had some discussion with WA Police about it because there had been some concern about people’s property damage and break-ins and that sort of thing.

“We thought Neighbourhood Watch would be a good way to raise awareness and support each other in their concerns.”

Mr Murphy said while the Shire might be able to provide the Neighbourhood Watch with funds it would support the group in whatever way it could.