WHITTLESEA residents will be armed with a new tool to help catch criminals – Eyewatch, an internet police and community bulletin board.
Residents will become the “eyes” of crime prevention by reporting suspicious activities online and helping police catch offenders by sharing information.
The Eyewatch Facebook page will be monitored and moderated by police or an authorised local, according to Kate Finlay of Whittlesea’s Neighbourhood Watch.
The page would cover everything from missing persons, suspicious activity, appeals for witnesses and community safety tips, while residents could hold online conversations.
It would not replace police, Ms Finlay said. People had to ring police who then post the information on the page.
“You can’t just say, ‘there is someone suspicious outside my house’ (in an online post), you have to ring triple zero, police will attend and then issue a warning (on Eyewatch),” she said. Whittlesea Eyewatch is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.
Meanwhile, Whittlesea Neighbourhood Watch, which celebrated its first birthday last week, will set up groups in Doreen-Laurimar, Lalor, Mernda-South Morang, Epping-Thomastown, Whittlesea and Eden Park. President Ron Sheedy said the municipality was too large for one group, and the sub-groups would make crime prevention more effective.
A recruitment drive would start in the new year to help stamp out local issues as hoon driving and home burglaries, he said. “We want an army of Neighbourhood Watch people, because the more people we’ve got the more eyes we’ve got.”
