Ipswich City Council

Safe City Program

The Ipswich Safe City program commenced in 1994 to deal with unacceptable levels of crime in Ipswich Central. The program has since been expanded and the camera networks have been installed into the Goodna, Booval, Bundamba, Redbank, Rosewood, North and West Ipswich and Brassall Bikeway to date. With further expansions proposed in the coming years for the program.

The two primary aims of the Ipswich Safe City program are:

To confront and address unacceptable levels of crime and violence by involving community members in the development of strategies, networks and committees; and
To create and expand on opportunities for all people to live, work socialise and play in Ipswich without feeling harassed or threatened.

The Ipswich City Council Safe City Monitoring Facility is situated in the Mall and operates 24 hours per day. The facility monitors 181 cameras in the Ipswich District and the facility has direct contact with the Police via radio and at the Police Operations room and co-ordinates with security companies in Ipswich. Additionally, the Monitoring Facility has contact with a range of other services in Ipswich to assist in addressing strategies for community policing.

What is the Ipswich City Council Safe City Program?

The Safe City Program is an integrated program of crime prevention and monitoring activities comprising:

An extensive communication and public safety surveillance monitoring system regarded as the best in Australia;
A surveillance centre that operates 24 hours a day, recording and monitoring 110 colour pan tilt zoom cameras, in Ipswich Central, Goodna, Redbank, Booval, Bundamba, Brassall and Rosewood;
Safe City security officers that provide support to users of the city by patrolling Ipswich Central and surrounding mall areas; and
Monitoring and responding to incidents in hot spot areas in Ipswich Central five days per week.

As a result of the integrated approach to crime, the Program:

Co-ordinates Police responses and emergency services to areas (within camera coverage) where an emergency response is required. This service is provided 24 hours a day;
Reduces crime through proactive community involvement and awareness through an advisory service that assists businesses in Ipswich Central, Goodna, Redbank, Booval, Bundamba, Brassall and Rosewood to implement crime prevention initiatives within their business or precinct;
Prevents many crimes from being committed. Safe City monitoring often detects incidents that are about to occur and responds by transmitting the actual image to the Ipswich Police radio room direct for a prompt response by Police;
Provides information and evidence to the Police, Liquor Licensing Division, Department of Family Services, Justice Department and various community crime prevention groups;
Identifies and locates missing persons, wanted persons and locates numerous missing children (mainly in Ipswich Central); and
Provides an on-street service to deal with juveniles at risk and those harming through substance abuse. Ipswich City Council respond, intervene and/or provide referrals to other government agencies such as the Health Department, Education, Families and Police.

The Success of Security Cameras

Ipswich City Council has been visited by law enforcement agencies from the Netherlands, Taiwan and Great Britain to inspect our camera monitoring system.

Police from three states in Australia and approximately twenty-five local authorities from across Australia have visited the Ipswich Monitoring Facility. This facility has been recognised as the benchmark for a fully integrated crime prevention program that is not solely reliant on cameras and utilises a co-ordinated approach of all agencies in Ipswich.

In addition, there is continued attention to and implementation of Crime Prevention through the Environmental Design component of the system.

In life threatening situations contact 000, if an offence has been committed or is about to be committed contact Police first, phone (07) 3813 8777, and advise the following:

location of incident
description of offenders
direction seen
what assistance you may require from the Safe City operators via the surveillance cameras

Police will then advise Safe City.

Remember, no matter how trivial your information may seem, please pass it on, as it may assist us in providing valuable information to Police.

Last Updated 19 May 2009 |

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