The Neighbourhood Watch Community Crime Prevention Program has always been particularly relevant to reducing property crime including break-ins and vehicle crime. NHW and our volunteers help to encourage the community to be vigilant and report suspicious activity and to educate them on how to protect their property.

With this in mind SA Police are running Operation Hurricane 2 to reduce crimes against property through a policing response that will disrupt, disable and dismantle criminal activity in all locations across the state.

The crimes being specifically targeted are break-ins to homes and businesses, theft from and theft of motor vehicles, theft of bicycles; fuel and copper; and property damage.

Previous operations in 2017 and 2018 achieved significant success in reducing break-ins.

As part of Operation Hurricane 2 a significant number of additional resources from across SA Police have been proactively targeting clusters of these types of crimes.  As part of this approach, a dedicated Volume Crime Section has also been established to analyse trends and identify repeat offenders to assist with the targeted deployment of resources with a view to disrupting criminal activities.

You can do your part too – you don’t have to go to extremes to protect your property. All you need to do is take some simple crime prevention measures to protect your homes, businesses, property and vehicles. You can also report suspicious behaviour immediately by calling the Police Assistance Line on 131 444.

As you may have already seen, SA Police have produced six Neighbourhood Watch SA Weekly Bulletins which are available in the Member Resources section of this site.

Plus we have a comprehensive range of safety and security booklets and fact sheets on our website.

During Operation Hurricane 2, Neighbourhood Watch in partnership with SA Police are running a five-week campaign on Facebook and our website providing helpful videos and short tips you can follow to make sure you don’t become a victim of crime.

Each week the campaign will highlight a specific security topic with tips for protecting:

• Businesses
• Your vehicle
• Your home
• Your bike
• Building sites

Week 1 – Business Security

Some things to consider include:

• Are all external doors and windows fitted with good quality locks?
• Can internal doors be locked when the building is left unattended for extended periods?
• Do you nominate members of staff to check that all doors and windows are closed and locked at the end of the business day?
• Do you maintain good visibility around the perimeter of your building (e.g. cutting back overgrown planting)?
• Do you have adequate lighting around your building during the hours of darkness?
• Do you have CCTV cameras regularly maintained?
• Do your CCTV cameras cover the entrances and exits of your building?
• Do you have CCTV cameras covering critical internal areas of your business such as server rooms or cash offices?
• Could you positively identify an individual from the recorded images on your CCTV system?

Check out our two Business Security video clips: 'Protect your business from theft' and 'Tips on choosing and installing a CCTV system'.