Community safety

Understanding community safety

The City of Casey is committed to creating a safe and inclusive Casey for all residents regardless of their age, gender, cultural background or profession. We do this through various programs, grant applications and partnerships with organisations ( such as Victoria Police, Neighbourhood Watch Casey) the Federal and State Government and many community groups.

This page serves as an overview of the current safety-related initiatives. More detailed information can be found in the Community Safety Strategy and Municipal Public Health & Wellbeing Plan.

What you've told us

In 2021, the City of Casey began a five-year research project into our resident’s perceptions of safety. The findings will help us better plan programs, projects, funding and advocacy work that allow our residents to feel safer. 

To participate in an annual survey, please check Casey Conversations for updates.

What we're doing to make Casey safer

Here's what we're doing to address the various community safety issues that were raised.

Free graffiti removal

The City of Casey has a free graffiti removal program to keep our open and public spaces clean and clear increasing feelings of safety. Residents can easily make reports to us.

Neighbourhood Watch Casey

Neighbourhood Watch Casey is a local group of volunteers fostering the idea that community safety is a joint effort, and everyone plays a role.  

Meetings are held at 7.00pm on the second Thursday of every month at various locations around Casey. Anyone is welcome to attend to raise safety matters in their area or join the group. In attendance at each meeting are group members, a Victoria Police member and City of Casey representative.  

Find out more by following the Neighbourhood Watch Casey Facebook or emailing [email protected]

L2P Learner Driver Mentor Program 

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) L2P Program is a community-based program developed to assist eligible young Victorian learner drivers between the ages of 16 and 21 years (and in some circumstances, up to 23 years) who do not have access to a supervising driver, gain the required 120 hours driving experience required for a probationary license.  

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

The City of Casey uses CPTED to manage and maintain our open spaces and facilities as well as planning and designing new spaces.  Put simply, CPTED uses the physical design of a space to design out crime. It focuses on good lighting, clear lines of sight, suitable signage as well as clean and clear spaces free of rubbish and graffiti. CPTED helps people move easily, feel safe, navigate, and freely participate in activities in a space. It uses evidence of issues and behaviors to prioritise the need for design interventions. 

Visual surveillance devices (CCTV)

The City of Casey recognises that using CCTV (also known as visual surveillance devices) can help make the community feel safer. 

The use of CCTV across different Councils in Victoria is varied, with some using it extensively and some not at all. There is no legislation that requires Council to install CCTV in public spaces.

Currently, the City of Casey does not install or use CCTV to monitor open public spaces such as parks, reserves and walkways.  There is a common perception that CCTV is effective at preventing crime, however evidence shows that this is usually not the case. In most cases, CCTV has very little effect on preventing crime and can be resource intensive to manage.

Council takes into consideration a wide range of options to address the issue of community safety. This includes utilising principles such as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) to promote safety in our public spaces.

If you have a concern about safety in your area, please get in touch with Council to discuss. For criminal matters, you should contact Victoria Police. 

Lighting in parks and reserves

Currently, Council does not have a program to provide new lighting within parks and reserves due to the wide number of these spaces and the high capital costs associated with installing new lighting.  The provision of lighting within parks and reserves can also encourage longer stays at nighttime and potential anti-social behaviour and in most cases there are existing street lights around the perimeter of this reserve. 

Hooning and dangerous driving

The City of Casey works closely with Victoria Police, Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and VicRoads to reduce hoon driving through road safety strategies and other education programs. 

Council does not install traffic-calming infrastructure, such as speed cushions, as it does not stop hoons. We also do not undertake enforcement of moving vehicles. Enforcement measures are almost always undertaken by Victoria Police who have highway patrols providing targeting the key drivers of road trauma, including speeding, impaired driving, occupant safety and driver distraction.

Residents who witness or have knowledge of dangerous driving should:

• Make a confidential report to Crime Stoppers online or by calling 1800 333 000
• Call 000 if anyone is in immediate danger

In Victoria, hoon driving and anti-hoon laws are covered by the Road Safety Amendment Bill 2015 Part 2 - Hoon Driving under the Road Safety Act 1986

Road safety

The City of Casey is committed to improving road safety and does so through infrastructure improvements, facilitation of road safety education and enforcement and by working with other agencies such as Victoria Police, VicRoads, and the State and Federal Government. 

Empowering Community Grants

The City of Casey has received an Empowering Communities grant from the Victorian Government as part of the Building Safer Communities Program. This is primarily due to crime rates being above the State average for vehicle and retail theft, aggravated robbery, residential burglary, drug possession, family violence and common assault.  The Grant has enabled the establishment of a community action group, the Casey Action Group, comprised of twelve community leaders.  The Action Group will allocate resources to local grassroots initiatives aimed at addressing identified crime prevention and community safety issues across a two year period. 

Child safe standards 

The City of Casey maintains Child Safe Standards in order to protect children from harm. The Standards were established by the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005. 

Reporting crime

• Call 000 (Triple Zero) when an immediate response is required - eg. a crime is happening or someone is in immediate danger.
   
• Contact Police Assistance Line online or on 131 44 to report non-urgent crime and events anytime, anywhere. This improves their ability to identify high incident areas and use this information to solve current investigations. 
   
• Report graffiti to Council for free removal using the online form or by calling 9705 5200. The VICGR app can also be used.
   
• Use our report an issue form to notify us of anything else you believe poses a community safety risk

Learn more

We recommend that you:

• know who the various emergency contacts are 
• find out about crime prevention measures from Crime Stoppers, Victoria Police, Neighbourhood Watch and Car Safe