Following the community-called meeting two weeks ago at the Goonellabah Workers Sports Club to address rising crime in the region, a cohesive database of local incidents is steadily growing.

The Lismore App spoke over the weekend with Andre Els, the Goonellabah resident who called the community meeting. He said he has had a strong response from people contacting him to share their stories, and that all the information is being collated and will be shared with police.

Andre has also been contacted by people from surrounding towns wanting a similar meeting to be held and information channels established. The current plan is to have a key person in each area as a point of contact and community advocate, with a meeting every 6 weeks between the representatives to share what is happening across the region.

“A lot of people don't want to talk to the police, but they'll talk to me and give me information. As a group, we might be able to get that information together and try and get this legislation changed - go to the politicians and say ‘This is what we want in our area.’” Andre shared, referring to legislation around the age of criminal responsibility - as many local offenders are in the age range of 15-16 years and are often unable to be prosecuted under current legislation.

Mark Ward, one local who has been encouraging people to utilise an app called WeWatch (a community crime prevention tool) has reported that as of Saturday, the number of downloads has risen to 1,750 in the Goonellabah/Lismore area. Word is spreading and the app is being installed and used to log break-ins and theft by address so that the community can see where and when these incidents are occurring.

One nugget of practical advice from Andre was that if the app pings on a location near you, turning your outside lights on will assist in driving away anyone intent on committing criminal activity.

Andre and others assisting the efforts want to get together 10-15 volunteers to assist in educating people about how they can better defend their properties against crime. This will involve showing people how to operate the WeWatch app, how to go about installing security cameras, and even simple things such as how to make sure their homes are properly locked up.

“I had a lady call me today. She's a pensioner, and they broke into her house and into the next-door neighbours. So she went straight out and bought surveillance cameras, but she didn't know how to install them. So she rang me. And I said, ‘Look, I'll come over and install them for you’, so I've just been over there now doing that. If we could have a team of people volunteering for this kind of thing it would be very helpful for a lot of people.

If you are interested in volunteering your time to help with this endeavour you can contact Andre at andre@els23.com.

It’s clear that some kind of action has been needed for a while now to empower and give people hope in the face of rising crime. With so many residents jumping on board with these recent efforts it appears we may be gaining some traction as a community to effect much-needed change.