Theft, vandalism and targeted attacks – residents fear a gang is causing trouble across several suburbs west of Maitland.
Locals in Aberglasslyn and Rutherford are using social media to help track down those responsible, and lobby police for help.
Theft, vandalism and targeted attacks – residents fear a gang is causing trouble across several suburbs west of Maitland.
Locals in Aberglasslyn and Rutherford are using social media to help track down those responsible, and lobby police for help.
With over 7 million citizens spread over 800,000 square kilometres, our government policing resources are often spread very thinly. NSW has approximately 218 sworn officers for every 100,000 citizens with the United Nation recommending a minimum 300 police per 100,000 citizens.
In the USA, the average number of sworn police officers to every 100,000 citizens is 367. To realise this number, NSW would need another 10,100 officers, and to come up to the level of the New York Police Department (NYPD), we would need another 19,120 officers.
But while citizens and public officials often espouse that more police would mean less crime, social scientists often claim the opposite extreme: that police make only minimal contributions to crime prevention. Indeed, despite continued growth in police numbers, police have achieved only a very limited penetration of the crime problem. The idea that public police could provide adequate security is now widely understood to be a completely false hope. The police role is probably best described in terms of “crime containment”, and they have a very limited capacity to contribute on their own to large-scale reductions in crime.
In Australia, there have been some unsuccessful attempts to relate the downward trend in crime to changes in police practices – such as ‘CompStat’-style management accountability for crime rates. In the area of investigations, the statistics show that police have only a limited penetration of the crime problem. While police in Australia obtain high clearance rates for murder – in the order of 80% – this drops significantly for crimes such as robbery – around one third of reported offences – down to 20% for motor vehicle theft and 10% for burglary.
At least 70% of crimes reported to police usually remain unsolved. At the same time, there have been Australian studies showing that modified policing practices can strongly influence specific crimes – although the more successful policing operations have involved partnerships with security firms or the uptake of innovative security processes.
Suburb Safe – Disrupting the Dinosaur (Security) Industry.
Any organisation setting out to wake up an industry dinosaur first need to look at why they have been doing things the same way for years, decades and maybe even centuries. Large industries are complex and processes are hard to change. Like a big ship, they turn slowly and not everyone is on board for change. Understanding their mindset and their culture is key to finding the right strategy.
Suburb Safe have spent a number of years researching and engaging with industry players to understand how decisions were being made and what were the motivations of each level of management and of their partners. Invariably to disrupt the process, you need an internal perspective.
Suburb Safe are working to change the way the physical security guard industry serves its customers.
And let’s face it, the security guard industry does seem like one of those dinosaurs that needs to be woken up.