Senior Constable Deb Hann – On the Beat
The weather has been a bit wild lately. It is a good reminder that preparedness for an adverse event is important.
Through their Capable Community Campaign, Neighbourhood Support Cambridge can assist with this. Together with the Community Engagement officer, Eileen Hawkins, your neighbourhood support group can put together a neighbourhood emergency plan. This plan shares neighbourhood contact information and also specialist skill sets and resources present within your street.
It also enables you to highlight vulnerable people in the neighbourhood who may need additional assistance in the case of an adverse weather event, for example help with mobilising for evacuation. This information may also be used by Civil Defence in a natural disaster situation improving the ability of your neighbourhood to appropriately and effectively respond and take care of each other. If you are not already a member of a Neighbourhood Support Group in your street, sign up today.
Still on the topic of neighbourhoods working together, you can be a great source of information to help in the disruption of drug activity in Cambridge. From time to time I highlight this topic directly to specific neighbourhoods where suspicious activity has been reported. As neighbours, you are often the first to notice an increase in short duration visitors to a particular address, overhear conversations around purchasing drugs combined with observations around transactions involving cash or commodity consumer electronics and the like being exchanged for an item. We need to know when and where this is happening.
Where drug dealing is occurring, there will often be a pattern of behaviour where this activity increases at certain times of the day or week, sometimes (but not always) pre-empted by the arrival of a delivery from the same people or vehicle. Besides notifying police of the address in question, information around visiting vehicle details (registrations and descriptions), occupants of the address, any delivery, sale and purchase patterns in addition noting any strange odours can help Police build a clear picture of the scale of offending and those involved. You can submit reports with information by phoning 105 or going online to 105.police.govt.nz . If you wish to report anonymously, you can phone Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.
At the time of writing this column, I am looking forward to the Coffee with a Cop event which was held after this edition went to press. If you have missed out on that one, be assured that there will be another opportunity for a similar event to be held in Leamington in the near future. Have a great week.
