Last week was busy in town with lots of visitors here for the annual Fieldays event. It went off without problem, although things did at times get a bit soggy! It was great to see so many people using the park and ride facility to avoid traffic hassles.
Deb Hann – Senior Constable at the Cambridge Farmers’ Market. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
The first topic this week is car theft. We have had a spate of thefts from vehicles, where offenders are targeting dashcams and related electronic items. Please ensure that any valuable items are either removed from your vehicle or stored out of sight to prevent your vehicle becoming a target.
Leaving things in view not only provides opportunity, perpetuating the attraction of the area to criminals, but also the inconvenience caused around insurance claims including having your car out of action or repaired. Replacing stolen items can be considerable. If you hear a car alarm go off in your neighbourhood, pay attention and check for suspicious activity. Sometimes we can get a bit complacent which limits their effectiveness as a deterrent.
As always, please report any criminal activity to police at the time.
Photo: KoolShooters pexels.com
Next on my list is a reminder to parents about cybersafety. A couple of local schools have recently hosted cybersafety awareness evenings for their parent communities. I hope many took the opportunity to go along. Sadly online bullying, sextortion and unsafe online behaviours by young people continue to come to our attention.
I would again like to remind parents to strongly consider how much they know about their children’s online activities – do you know what content they are watching – and therefore being influenced by – and who they are talking to? If you allow access to social media, what guidelines are in place around that? What exactly are your children posting and to how wide an audience? Back in the day, school place bullying usually stopped at the home door .
With today’s online world, it can be hard to escape from name calling, public shaming and humiliation coming straight to the mobile phone however. For the perpetrators, it is easy to say incredibly damaging things to a person online, without seeing the emotional impact it has on the person being targeted – that impact can be huge, including leading to anxiety and depression.
It is equally stressful for our young people to feel the need to respond to messages 24/7 or feel left out, to feel the pressure to live up to false standards perpetrated by online portrayals of body image, beauty and ‘highlights reels’ of other’s lives.
The best way we can protect our children is firstly to be aware of the risks. If you get the opportunity to attend a cybersafety talk, take it up. There are plenty of excellent resources available to parents online.
Senior Constable Deb Hann – On the Beat
