New face of policing

By MELISSA MEEHAN
IT’S policing in the 21st century.
With the community all a twitter about social media, it’s no surprise Yarra Ranges police are taking local policing to a new level.
Those in touch with the interweb who go online to get their news fix can now add their local copper as a Facebook friend.
The Eyewatch – Yarra Ranges Police Service Area page was started as a pilot program a couple of months ago, with similar pages being tried out in Darebin, Geelong, Brimbank and Hobsons Bay.
Yarra Ranges Inspector Paul Rosenblum and one of the five guardians of the page said it was a platform for the community to keep in touch with policing in the area.
“The page isn’t just helping to solve crime, but it also empowers the community to play a part in community crime prevention,” Insp Rosenblum said.
“They can voice their concerns, have their questions answered and see what we are getting up to.”
He said the move to embrace technology, especially social media, was a good opportunity for local police to engage with the community in a way they never have before.
Police can answer questions from the public directly as well as posting photos of impounded cars or stills of video images from crimes at train stations.
“We obviously can’t always answer straight away, but we definitely try to get an answer as quickly as we can,” he said.
“And the highway patrol guys can put up pictures of the impounded cars – it really shows the community what we are doing to make the community a safer place.”
Insp Rosenblum said the key to successful policing was to be a part of the community.
“In recent times this meant people would pick up the phone or write us a letter, this is just another vehicle for that kind of stuff,” he said.
He said local police were also looking at the possibility of letting followers know when the stations were manned.
To follow Eye Watch go to https://www.facebook.com/eyewatchyarrarangespsa and click “Like”.