OPERATION BOUNCE BACK: PARTNERSHIP WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Sub-program B: Reducing the Volume of Theft

Approach B2: Promoting Secure Practices in the Community

Background

While the public profile of vehicle theft and security has increased over recent years, many Australians still fail to understand the true dynamics of the crime. The NMVTRC has conducted media and public education campaigns since its inception and consistently monitored public attitudes to vehicle theft. Developing innovative ways to encourage reporting of theft issues and making use of existing channels of information is an ongoing challenge.

Work Program

2004/05 Operation Bounce Back

In August 2004, the NMVTRC sent its revised Tackling Vehicle Theft: a Guide for Local Communities to 600 Councils across Australia to encourage them to undertake theft reduction projects as part of their crime prevention activities.  Councils were also given access to the NMVTRC’s free public education materials to support their work.

Twenty non-CBD Councils with particularly high levels of older vehicle theft were offered an Operation Bounce Back grant package to undertake theft prevention and awareness projects based on the new Guide. The grant package included direct funding, immobiliser installations, and educational and promotional support materials.

The following fifteen local councils took up the Operation Bounce Back offer: Bankstown, Campbelltown, Canterbury and Wollongong (NSW); Darebin, Greater Geelong, Hume and Moreland (Victoria); Glenorchy and Launceston (Tasmania); Gold Coast; Ipswich; and Logan (Queensland); and Canning and Gosnells (Western Australia). (Grants were also provided to the Department of Justice and Community Safety (ACT) and the South Australian Vehicle Theft Reduction Committee to implement theft prevention and immobilisation campaigns in these jurisdictions.)

For further details about the 2004/05 program, including a summary of projects undertaken by grant recipients, see the Operation Bounce Back 2004/05 Summary Report.

2005/06 Operation Bounce Back

The Operation Bounce Back program is underway for 2005/06 with offers of funding being made to ‘hot spot’ councils during October and November.

The 2005/06 program includes new grants and some ‘follow-up’ grants to previously funded councils to extend their projects. Local councils funded in 2005/06 to date are:
Blacktown, Penrith, Canterbury and Bankstown (NSW); Adelaide (SA); Casey, Brimbank and Greater Geelong (VIC); Canning, Gosnells and Stirling (WA); Glenorchy and Clarence (TAS); and Logan and Toowoomba (QLD). Funding of further grants will be announced on the latest news page.

Next Steps

Local Operation Bounce Back projects implemented under the NMVTRC’s second round of program funding will be conducted throughout Australia from November 2005 to June 2006.