Stop thieves from nicking your number plates

I'm getting my plates done this weekend. If you live in the Canada Bay area, I suggest you get yours done too. I've put a note in my diary so I don't forget (like I did last time the Police did this).

--------------------

Burwood Police to fit ‘free’ one-way number plate screws to stop theft

Issued between 10 am and 2:00 pm, on the following days - 7,8,9 August 2009

Police from the Burwood Local Area Command will take part in a regional program, starting over three days this month, providing drivers with irreversible number plate screws free of charge.

Operation Tabella, a joint initiative by the NSW Police Force and the NSWAttorney General’s Department, will be the biggest project of its type undertaken in New South Wales.

Police, assisted by (specific LAC volunteer organisation/companies/agencies…such as Granville and Chullora TAFE, the State Emergency Service, Rural Fire Service, Beaurepaires, Bunnings etc), will man special “fitting stations” where motorists can attend and have the ‘one-way’ screws inserted.

The fitting stations will be established on the following dates:

• Friday 7 August - 10 am to 2:00 pm Council car park on Crane St Concord

• Saturday 8 August -10 am to 2:00 pm Council car park on Crane St Concord

• Sunday 9 August - 10 am to 2:00 pm Council car park on Crane St Concord

Motorists can log onto the NSW Police Force website for more information or contact their local Police Station for further details.

Additional, localised fitting sessions may be scheduled and the number plate screws will continue to be provided, free of charge, to the public until September 30.

Recent figures by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research indicate that number plates account for 12% of items stolen from motor vehicles.

There were 35 number plate thefts in the Burwood Local Area Command between January and May this year.

The stolen plates are often used in service station ‘drive offs’ (fail to pays), robberies, road toll fraud and other offences.

Burwood Local Area Commander, Acting Superintendent Arthur Aleksandrowicz, said smaller operations at Local Area Command level have proved successful in reducing number plate theft.

“As a result, the number of service station drive-offs in those areas has fallen dramatically,” Acting Superintendent Aleksandrowicz said.

“The tamper-proof screws can’t be removed without a special tool provided to police,” he said.

“We anticipate drivers who can’t attend the fitting stations on the allotted days will be able to attend their local police station following the operation and collect the screws, free of charge.

“People should make the effort to replace the screws on their vehicles.

“They’re free, easy to fit and difficult for thieves to remove…it’s just a sensible step to safeguard your number plates,” Acting Superintendent Aleksandrowicz added.

****************************

Issued by NSW Police Force Media Unit (02) 8263 6100

Authorised by A/Supt Aleksandrowicz, Burwood LAC)

It's gone down - when will it go back up?

As I was going past the Five Dock Police Station earlier this week, I noticed that the flag out the front had finally been hauled down.  I have this bugbear about it being left up overnight when it shouldn't be.  The protocols regarding flying the flag are crystal clear, and can be located immediately by typing "flag protocol" into Google.

The Australian National Flag should be displayed only in a manner befitting the national emblem. It should not be subjected to indignity or displayed in a position inferior to any other flag or ensign. The Flag normally takes precedence over all other national flags when flown in Australia. It should always be flown aloft and free and should not be allowed to fall or lie upon the ground.

and...

The flag may be displayed at night, but only when it is properly illuminated

Although the Police fly the NSW state flag, the same rules apply as for the National Flag. You'd think the Police of all people would be capable of following the proper procedure.  Policing is, after all, a very procedures driven occupation.  If you don't follow the proper procedure when arresting and charging someone, or when handling evidence, your case will be thrown out of court.  

I imagine every police officer follows a "start up" procedure when getting ready in the morning - uniform clean and ironed, boots polished, baton, pistol, hat, cuffs, notebook, pen, keys, flashlight etc etc etc. They'd follow this procedure automatically to ensure that they don't go on duty and find that they have forgotten to take part of their kit with them.

In a similar vein, every station should have a daily procedure written down - a checklist - covering everything that has to be done either at shift handover or when the station opens and closes.  With regard to the flag at Five Dock, there are three possible scenarios:

1. Such a checklist exists, but raising and lowering the flag is not included, or
2. No checklist exists
3. A checklist exists, it covers flag protocol, but it is not being followed

I don't know which scenario is worse.  Either way, senior management in our Local Area Command now knows about it, and it has obviously become someone's problem.  

I know this is a small thing, and it might seem ridiculous to harp on about it, but I believe that if the Police are to be effective, they must present themselves properly to the public.  Their vehicles should be in good condition and clean.  Officers must look like Police Officers - no one is going to trust an officer that looks like a bag of sh*t.  Police Stations and officers must present an air of authority, competence and trust.  Flying a dirty old dish rag out the front looks bad, it is bad, and it has to stop.  I regularly see Police cars and fire engines flying the flag, and it is clearly flown with pride.  Why can't our local station get the same?

It costs nothing to treat the flag properly, but the pay off in pride and self respect and public trust and respect is surely worth the effort.

Unfurling a new flag

Our local Police station was proudly flying a fresh, new flag today.  It appears my occasional grumbling has paid off, even if it did take some months to get a result.  I got a kick out of seeing a flag that was not tattered, faded and unloved flying at full mast.

I was going past the station around sunset, so I stopped and stuck my head in.  When the Constable on duty asked me how he could help me, I pointed out that it was sunset and it was time to lower the flag.

He asked me to repeat myself, which I did.

I think he was quite stunned to see that a member of the public would bother to walk into the station to tell them that.

He replied that he was aware of the protocol, and said that they couldn't always take it down - presumably due to resourcing problems and other more pressing matters blah blah blah.  I don't mind it not being taken down from time to time, but I'm not going to stand for it not being taken down for months on end.  I guess I will just have to front up at the station every day at sunset and repeat my mantra - the flag will be lowered at sunset.  After a few visits, they should get the point.

A few things here and there

It's been a typical week, reporting graffiti on a few Energy Australia kiosks and Council assets. What I have noticed of late is that Energy Australia is now a lot quicker at cleaning up their assets than they were when I started.  I'd guess they have cut their turnaround time from 2 months to 2-3 weeks.

That's still too slow, but it's a big improvement.  Personally, I still think they should simply handover responsibility to Council, who would clean it within a week, and then they could stop worrying about it and concentrate on their core business - delivering electricity reliably.

I went past an Energy Australia kiosk yesterday and noticed graffiti on it.  Not 50 yards away, their contractors were digging up the road and laying or replacing cable.  It had to be Energy Australia contractors, because they had a sign up saying, "Improving our electricity supplies in this area".  The street was closed off, they had 5 or 6 trucks and a dozen staff working on the site - and what is the bet that none of them thought they should bother to report graffiti on an asset that they were working right next to?

Last week, I went to the first meeting of the new Police Community Safety Precinct Committee (CSPC) here in Five Dock - and found myself being the only member of the "community".  As far as I am concerned, the meeting went well and we had a good discussion about a number of issues.  The next meeting will be held in 3 months time, possibly at another venue and at a later time to allow more people to attend.  

Everyone who attended (the meeting included our local member, Angela D'Amore MP, two Councillors, several Council staff and a number of Police officers) want to see more members of the public at future meetings.  

Protocol, continued

There are times when I find myself bashing my head against the brick wall of insane processes that some private companies and government saddle themselves with.  Convoluted, paper-dense, hard to follow processes that are so time consuming to carry out properly that people either don't bother to do anything, or they go around the processes altogether in order to get things done.

Yesterday was different.  I discovered what on the surface appears to be a fairly simple process.  The officer at the Department of Premier & Cabinet who deals with protocol rang me back and told me that if I wanted a new flag for Five Dock Police Station, I had to call the Office of Police Protocol - they handle the issue of flags to Police Stations.  She even gave me their phone number.

One call later, I had learned that ordering a flag is as easy as ordering a Police uniform (assuming you actually work for the Police).  I don't know how hard it is to order a uniform, but given that all the Police I've seen lately have been walking around in more than their underwear, it can't be that hard.

The Constable in the Police Protocol office said that he would call Five Dock station and tell them that a member of the public was unhappy with their flag, and the way that they are treating it, and could they please order a new one through the appropriate channels.  The Constable said he'd even make sure he sends them a booklet on flag protocol.

If it was that easy for me, as a complete outsider, to work out what to do, I have only one question to ask - why hasn't anyone in the Burwood command bothered to do this for the last 6 months?  It's really not that hard.

Protocol

I did my best last week to get a quiet message to the Burwood Police Local Area Commander about the correct treatment of the state flag that they "fly" outside the Five Dock station (Five Dock reports to the Burwood LAC). The flag has not been taken down in months, even though that is a breach of flag protocol. In fact, until I arranged for Canada Bay Council to cut back the tree that had grown around the flag pole, the flag was simply left tangled in the branches.

It is now a tattered wreck, looking like regimental colours after the Battle of Waterloo.

Apparently the Superintendent at Burwood was less than happy with my request, and more so, he's done nothing about it.

I've just left a message with the officer in the Department of Premier and Cabinet who hopefully takes care of these things. I've asked them to arrange a new flag for the station, and to provide the officers there with a book on how to treat it properly.

I feel like I am reduced to wiping the bottoms of infants.

What disturbs me most about this is that surely the Police station must be equipped with a set of written daily routines or procedures. That is, the first person to open the station in the morning should be going through a checklist to ensure that the station is in a fit state, and the last person out the door at night should be going through a closure checklist. There should also be a checklist for shift changeover. Every business that I have ever worked in has had checklists like this to ensure that staff do things properly and don't forget things. They are used to keep the workplace in a clean and manageable state.

If such checklists exist (and I hope they do), then presumably each one would have something to say about the flag. ie, put it up when the station opens, and take it down at night and store it properly. Pretty simple really.

If they have it on the checklists and aren't following each step, then management needs to give the person in charge a boot up the backside. If they don't have any checklists at all, then management needs a boot up the backside.

Fly, be free!

Back in early February, I noticed that the Police were unable to fly the state flag properly outside the Five Dock station because it kept getting tangled in an encroaching tree.

I asked council if they'd trim the tree, since the tree is on public land.

Going past last night, I noticed that the tree had been well cut back, and the flag can now flutter freely in the breeze.

Next step - teach the Police about flag etiquette, and hauling it down after dark.  They can no longer say, "It's stuck in the tree" as an excuse for leaving it up overnight.  I have passed some information about flag etiquette to an associate in Police HQ - we'll see if it works it way down the chain of command to the front line here at Five Dock.  When I see a bare flag pole out the front of the station after dark, I'll know that the message has made it through.

Returning the favour

Last year, just before the annual Ferragosto festival in Five Dock, I suggested to one of our councillors that they should do a graffiti "spring clean" along Great North Road where the festival is held.  I'm not sure if it was my suggestion that actually led to the cleanup happening or not, but the area was spruced up.

In the process, a police officer issued a parking ticket to the council graffiti truck for parking in a "no stopping" zone outside Fred Kelly Place, where a cleanup was taking place.  The truck has to park close to the site being cleaned, as the pressure hose will only reach so far, and there are limited places where a truck of that size can stop.

You might think that a police officer would exercise a bit of common sense and not issue a ticket to a council worker carrying out this sort of duty - but that was not the case.

Therefore, let me return the favour by posting this photo of a police van illegally parked in the same spot on 20 November 2008 at 1.40pm.  As I watched, an officer came out of the fish and chip shop up the road with several bags of fish and chips and jumped into the van, which then moved off.  I presume that was lunch for the staff back at the Burwood station.

The police van was there for some minutes - for all I know they waited there the entire time the fish was frying.  They didn't appear to be responding to a crime - they were responding to hunger pangs.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have posted this photo - but when I found out that the council graffiti truck had been ticketed for parking here whilst performing a useful community service, I decided to post it.  Are some police officers deliberately trying to destroy any hope of inter-governmental cooperation of tackling graffiti?  Was this really in the public interest?  Whose side is this particular police officer on - the community or the criminals?  

It's a sad day when the police decide that raising revenue by ticketing a council graffiti cleanup truck is more important than actually tackling those that put the graffiti there in the first place.

Mangling the flag

This hastily taken photo shows how the Police in Five Dock are treating the state flag.  There is a tree opposite the entrance to the station, and it has needed trimming for over 12 months.  As the tree is on council land, the council has to do the trimming - but the council won't do anything unless someone points out that this tree is a problem, and needs cutting back.

The flag regularly gets tangled in the tree like this, and sometimes it doesn't get hauled down for days.  I've put in a request to council (twice) to have the tree trimmed back enough to allow the flag to fly freely.  However, it's a crying shame that the Police of all people seem to have no idea how to treat our flag.

I might have to send away for a booklet on flag etiquette on behalf of our local Police.

Flying the flag

• The flag should be raised briskly and lowered ceremoniously.
• The flag should be raised no earlier than first light and lowered no later than dusk.
• When the flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried in a parade or review, everyone present should be silent and face the flag. People in uniform should salute.
• The flag should always be flown freely and as close as possible to the top of the flagpole with the rope tightly secured.
• Unless all flags are raised and lowered simultaneously, the Australian National Flag should be raised first and lowered last.
• When the Australian National Flag is flown with flags of other nations, all flags should be the same size and flown on flagpoles of the same height
• When flying with only one other national flag, the Australian National Flag should fly on the left of a person facing the flags.
• Two flags should not be flown from the same flagpole.
• The flag may be flown at night only when it is illuminated.
• The flag should never be flown if it is damaged, faded or dilapidated. When the material of a flag deteriorates it should be destroyed privately and in a dignified way. i.e it may be cut into small unrecognisable pieces then disposed of with the normal rubbish collection.
• The flag should not be flown upside down, even as a signal of distress.
• The flag should not fall or lie on the ground or be used as a cover (although it can be used to cover a coffin at a funeral).
• Information on the protocols for displaying and folding the flag can be found in Part 2 of the booklet Australian flags (PDF 928KB) , which is available from your Federal Member of Parliament or Senator.

After reading that last line, I've contacted the office of our Federal Member, John Murphy MP, and asked them to send the Police Station a copy of the flag booklet.  

The right way and the wrong way to fly our flag

Here's how our flag should be flown, whether it is a state flag or the Australian flag.

This is how they fly it at Five Dock police station (and have done so for nearly a year).  It isn't so much flown, as tangled in a tree.  No one seems to have informed the Police that a flag must be taken down at sunset, unless it is floodlit.  I get the feeling they can't take it down, as it is too tangled in the tree.

I finally gave up this morning and contacted Council and asked them to trim the tree (it's on council land).  I hope council has a better grasp of flag etiquette than the Police.

Apart from that, trees elsewhere have been falling down this week. I took this photo on Monday in a park in Auburn - reported it to council this morning.

I took this photo today on the Duck River Cycleway in Auburn - another branch that has blown down over the path.  Must remember to call Auburn council in the morning.  

They had a sign at the end of the cycleway explaining all the activities that are prohibited on the cycleway, but no phone number for council.  If there was one, I would have rung them on the spot.

------------

Update - rang Auburn Council and told them about the fallen tree.  I had a devil of a time finding a phone number on their website - it's almost as if they don't want people to ring them up.  I also had trouble explaining the location of the fallen tree, as the cycleway in this location doesn't run near any roads - it actually runs under the M4 motorway.  I hope council manage to find it!

NSW Court statistics

These statistics are taken from a report on the BOCSAR website into NSW Criminal Courts Statistics, page 28.

Graffiti

Persons charged in 2006 - 121

Number of charges in 2006 - 143

Graffiti is a subset of property damage.  There were 9,278 persons charged with property damage, with a total of 10,125 charges laid.

26 persons appeared in the children's court charged with graffiti related offences, with 18 of them being found guilty.

I have emailed the Bureau asking whether the 2007 statistics are available yet.  

Here is food for thought.

There are around 150 Councils in NSW.  Presumably every Council suffers from graffiti.  121 people were charged in 2006 (no idea how many were convicted).  That means there is some chance that the Police failed to arrest or charge anyone for graffiti offenses in Canada Bay in 2006.  I am going to do a bit of digging and try and find out.  I don't like the idea that people can damage property and have a 100% chance of getting away with it, unless they are brazen or silly enough to be caught red handed.

The trials and tribulations of going through an MP

I have posted this rather long and frustrating set of correspondence with my state MP because it shows just how difficult it can be at times to get the simplest of things done.  In this case, I saw a problem with the Five Dock Police Station - the yard was an absolute shambles - a tipping ground of beer bottles and other rubbish that had been tossed into the grounds by the less than savoury part of our population.  The simplest solution would have been for me to directly approach the Officer in Charge of the station, and ask them to get it cleaned up (or so I thought).  

However, I wanted to put our local MP to the test - was she up to the challenge of getting a few square metres of grass and hedge tidied up?

Read on for the results......

I started with a fax to her office on 2 May 2007.  

Having heard nothing back, on 17 May 2007, I wrote the following letter and posted it:

Dear Ms D’Amore

Follow up to fax sent on 2 May 2007

I refer to the attached fax, which was sent to your office on 2 May 2007.

It has now been two weeks, and I have not received a response, let alone a letter acknowledging receipt.

I am not that worried about whether you can bothered writing back or not.  My preferred response would be to see the litter picked up around the Police Station.  I walk past it each day, so it will soon be obvious whether you have done anything about it or not.

Sincerely, 

I initially walked around to her office and tried to stick it through the mail slot in the door (in order to save 50 cents), but found that her office does not have a mail slot.  I ended up having to post a letter to get it to travel a distance of around 200 metres (the distance from our house to her office).

On 13 June, nearly six weeks after sending my initial fax, and two weeks after dropping off my letter, I went high tech and tried her email address.  I was a bit angry by this stage.

13/06/2007

Dear Ms D’Amore 

I sent a fax to your office on 2 May regarding rubbish outside the Five Dock Police Station.

I followed this up by posting a letter to your office on 17 May.

It is now 13 June – nearly a month and a half since my first attempt at contacting you, and I have had no response. 

First a fax, then a letter – now an email.  Do you ever both responding to your constituents?  If you can’t be bothered, I’ll just send them to the local newspapers and see if they are interested in doing a story on your lack of interest in your “community”.

------------

I got an email back from her Electorate Officer same day:

13/06/2007 

The matter that you reported to Angela D'Amore's office was actioned on that day by reporting the issue of litter to Council and seeking the information from the Police. 

A reply with the above information was sent to you 28/05/07. 

I will re-post it on 14/06. 

Kind regards

Drummoyne EO

----------

I waited a week, and nothing came in the mail, so I tried again on 21 June.  I was getting even more steamed up by this point, particularly as we were getting regular newsletters from Ms D'Amore around this time telling us what a great job she was doing of listening to the community and working for the community etc etc:

21/06/2007

I have still not received anything from you in the mail, as stated below.

Given that your office is about 200 metres from my house, I suggest you walk up the hill, turn right, walk past the Police Station (and have a look at what I am complaining about), turn right into West St, left into xxx St and our place is about xxx metres down the road.

That will probably be a lot faster than trying to post it.

You could also stick your head in at the Police Station and have a word with the Station Commander and ask him to tidy things up.  That might get better results than sending letters hither and thither.  I’d do that myself, but I have not found them to be particularly receptive to members of the public.  They might take a bit more notice of you.

-------------------------

We had some progress the following day.  Part of the mystery was solved - her office had been sending her replies to our old address:

22/06/2007

Just to let you know that the copy you posted last week has finally arrived.

I don’t know why, but it was addressed to my old address of AAA St.  I checked both the fax and the letter that I sent and both had my current address of BBB St on them.  

I should point out that we'd setup mail forwarding with Australia Post, and all our other mail was getting through.  It seems that the Australia Post though had a bad habit of losing all letters from Angela....

Here is a copy of that letter.  Note that it says that "it has been reported to the City of Canada Bay as the responsible authority to have the litter removed..."

I was a bit confused at that point. I thought the Police would have been the responsible authority, since it was their station that we were talking about.  How Council got involved, I don't know.  What really blew me away is that the Police Station is just up the hill from Ms D'Amore's electorate office - I have seen her chatting to patrons of the cafe that is practically next door.  It's not like she couldn't have walked past (or had one of her staff walk past) to check for herself what I was writing about. 

-----------------

We got a response to my email 3 days later:

25/06/2007 

Thank you for your e-mail . 

The record provided to us by the Electoral Commission still shows you at AAA St.

Have you advised the Commission of the change?

Regards

Drummoyne EO

----------------------------

My response:

25/06/2007

Yes I have changed my enrolment, and I received a letter from the AEC advising us that it changed on 23 May.

Please also note that I contacted Canada Bay Council last week about another matter and when I mentioned this one, they said that they have not received a letter from your office about the Police Station. 

-------------

I didn't hear anything for a while, so on 19 July, I rang the Police Commissioner's office and had a chat with one of the people that deals with his correspondence.  I did this because the response that I got on 13 June said, "seeking the information from the Police".  I took that to mean that Ms D'Amore's office had contacted both the Council and the Police, and assumed that any correspondence that went to the Police would have to go through the Commissioner's office.  So I was a bit surprised when I discovered that the Commissioner's office had heard nothing about it.

19/07/2007

I have just phoned the Police Commissioner’s office regarding this issue.  Since it is now 2 ½ months since my initial fax, I thought I would chase them up and find out what is going on. 

A search of their correspondence tracking system showed no sign of any correspondence regarding the Five Dock Police Station, either in my name or Angela D’Amore’s.  The person I spoke to suggested that you fax all correspondence related to this issue directly to 8263 6443 and mark it to the attention of the Correspondence Section.  They will ensure that it is properly registered and taken care of.

You really start to despair a bit when you have to tell an MP how to contact a government department.

Just to be sure, I also rang Council and had a chat to one of their customer service representatives.  I asked them to do a search on their correspondence tracking system to see if they could find any trace of any mention of the Police Station under my name or Ms D'Amore's.  I was on the phone for quite some time, and nothing could be found.

-----------

19/07/2007

Furthermore, I have also followed up with Canada Bay Council and they are unable to find any correspondence from your office regarding this issue.

I suggest you resend a copy of your original letter to Council as well.

-------------

The following letter was sent to me the next day.  Now given everything that I have listed above, I did wonder whether anything had been sent to Council in the first place.

It turned out that something had been sent to Council, because I got the following letter from Council on 28 August.  This was all very nice, but did nothing to fix the problem that I originally wrote about.  Council was very efficient at doing its bit (which was essentially nothing), but they fixed the wrong problem.

A few months went by, and nothing was done about the mess in the grounds of the Police Station.  I decided that Angela D'Amore was never going to understand what the problem was, and therefore fix it, so I walked into the Police Station one day and had a chat with the Constable at the front desk.  She told me to call the Local Area Manager at Burwood, which I did, and the problem was solved within a few days.  (You might ask why the Constable didn't do that herself, but that is a problem for another day).

Now I could have done that at the beginning, but like I said, I wanted to see whether my local MP could do a better job than me.

I'll let you decide the outcome of that.

More time went by, and the grounds of the station degenerated once more.  Someone smashed a beer bottle outside the front door, and the broken glass sat there for a week.  The Police walked in and out of their front door, and thought nothing of the message that a broken beer bottle and piles of rubbish on the lawn were sending to the public passing by.  Then I watched a re-run of "Fort Apache: The Bronx", a great Paul Newman film, and decided to have another go.  I was even more steamed up this time.  I kind of went off the deep end.  This letter is pretty funny though - I apologise for the length, but it's worth reading.

I wrote this on 2 Feb 2008 - 10 months after my first approach about the Police Station.

A response came back a few days later:

A followup came back two weeks after that:

A final response came through on 7 April 2008 - 3 weeks shy of the one year anniversary of my desire to have a bit of garbage collected from the lawn of my local Police Station.

If you figure out what planet Angela D'Amore MP is on, please let me know.

PS - we now have a new Police Local Area Commander at Burwood.  I hope that's nothing to do with me.

Five Dock - the daily damage

We start in Five Dock Park.  When I was there, I spotted this Police van and a Police Officer out the front of a retirement home.  Note the vandalised Energy Australia substation to the left - I wonder if any of our local Police ever both to take note of graffiti, or whether they ignore it until someone attempts to report it?

A car park just off Great North Road.

A shop on the corner of Barnstaple Road and Great North Road, showing fresh and faded graffiti.

The same shop.  From what I can tell, someone has walked up or down this street and tagged at least half a dozen shops and streetside items as they went.  If I did an "about face" at this spot, I would be looking straight at Angela D'Amore's office.

A fresh and "cleaned" tag outside a real estate office.

The same office, with other tags.

Tags in closeup.

The apartment block next door - fresh and "cleaned" tags.

Another real estate office, showing signs of having been vandalised in the past.

A Sydney Buses bench, showing signs of old graffiti.

The shop next to this bus stop.

The Five Dock Post Office.  The "Envy" hair salon in the background has been tagged, as has the Post Office and these two letter boxes.  

Note the presence of the Australia Post van - what are the chances of the driver reporting that the letter boxes have been vandalised?

Better view of the vandalised letter boxes.

Envy, showing recent graffiti.

Fred Kelly place - this is no more than a day or two old, since I asked Council to repaint this whole area last month.  I go through here every few days, and this was clean on Monday.

More graffiti in Fred Kelly place - even the bin has been tagged.

Graffiti around the electorate of Drummoyne

Our local member, Angela D'Amore MP, has been in the news this week. She's been making comments about the government's graffiti strategy.  You can read about it here and here.

Having read what she has to say, I went out today and took a large batch of photographs.  Some are from the area shown below in the blue box - the red arrow is pointing at Angela D'Amore's electoral office.  The rest are from various locations around the Drummoyne electorate.

One vandalised sub-station - near the Gladesville Bridge.  Note that I had Energy Australia repaint this not long ago.  This was in pristine condition a few weeks ago.

Graffiti along the approaches to the Gladesville Bridge, taken from the southern side.  This is what motorists see as they drive along Victoria Road, one of Sydney's busiest roads, and I presume it helps them form a view of what Drummoyne is like.

A second vandalised substation.  Note that this was repainted in the last month - graffiti is already re-appearing.  Also located in Drummoyne.

The single example of some legal spray can art in Drummoyne that I know of.  This is next to the DMC medical centre on Victoria Road.

The outside wall of the Laing + Simmons real estate office in Drummoyne - the block next door has been demolished, and the wall has been taken over by graffiti.  Would you rent from a real estate agent that let their own property get like this?

A Sydney Water box of some sort, outside the Drummoyne Public School - I don't think this sends the best message to young kids.

Sydney Water has a good online reporting system here.  It even allows you to upload photos or documents (I have uploaded the photo above to illustrate the problem) and it provides a reference number once you finished loading the form.  The reference number in this case is 080709-000016.  It is the best web reporting system that I have used to date.

The back of the Five Dock Bowling Club.  The club does not have an email address - I'll  have to ring them on 9712 3303 and ask them to clean it up.

An electrical substation in Five Dock - on Barnstaple Road.

A control box of some sort out the front of the same substation.  Note the graffiti on the fence in the left rear background.

RTA traffic control box 2764, in Russell Lea.  The RTA has recently cleaned up many of these boxes around Five Dock, but there are some that are still in this condition.  It's not that long ago that almost every single one of them looked like this.

An Australia Post letterbox just next to the above RTA control box.

Yet another vandalised substation, which was recently painted.

And another vandalised substation - I think this was in Pine Ave, Russell Lea.

Notice how even the "danger" sign has been defaced at some point.

Yet another vandalised substation.  How many is that now?  Just remember that I had Energy Australia repaint all their substations in the inner west not that long ago.

Some graffiti on the wall of a doctor's surgery in Five Dock.  This surgery is on a corner.  If you take the road to the right at this point and walk down it for about 100 metres, you will walk straight into the front door of Angela's office.

Graffiti around a construction site - this is on Great North Road at Fred Kelly Place - the heart of the Five Dock shopping area.

From the spot where I took the above photo, you can just see Angela D'Amore's electoral office down the hill (yellow arrow).  It is maybe 150 metres from this point.

Angela's office - note the funeral parlor to the left.

Graffiti at the rear of the White Lady funeral parlor - the entire wall facing the road to the left has also been vandalised and painted over recently.  I've also emailed this particular White Lady branch to ask them to clean up this mess, letting them know that it doesn't reflect well upon their business.  

Update - I got a good response from the Regional Manager of White Lady.  She said that they are demolishing and replacing the fence at the back, and they have repeatedly painted the side wall.  She seemed a bit frustrated at the cost of constantly repainting the wall, so I pointed her at the Canada Bay Council graffiti removal service.  I hope they find it to be useful and cost effective.

A shelter at the side of a shop opposite Angela's office.  As you can see by the "wet paint" signs, it was repainted today.  This has been a badly vandalised eyesore for months.

The Council parking lot at the corner of Waterview St and Second Avenue.  This is about 100 metres from Angela's office, and it too has been a vandalised eyesore for months, if not years.  I've asked the Council to clean this up previously, but it's a big job.  The least I could do today was to contact Bottlemart and ask them to clean up the back of their shop.

Update - I got this response from Bottlemart:

The Five Dock Hotel is a member of our marketing group Bottlemart; we do not run or have an ownership of this or any other of our hotels. I will notify the area Manager that looks after this venue and make a suggestion that they resolve this matter.

I've also pointed them at the Council graffiti removal service.

The back of some shops, just off the same car park.

The back of the ANZ bank, just off the car park.  The ANZ has a rather hopeless online reporting system - the best they can do is offer an email address of "yourfeedback@anz.com".  I've attached the photo below and sent it to them, asking them to clean this mess up.  We'll see what happens.

The side of the National Australia Bank - Angela's office is just down the path to the right.  

The red arrow is pointing at the Five Dock Police Station.

To quote Angela in the Northern Times: 

"Police are also working to identify graffiti hot spots and increase surveillance and enforcement."

I should point out that when I was walking around Five Dock yesterday, I did see two Police Officers also walking the streets.  I doubt they were doing a patrol though - I'm told that this station is only used by Highway Patrol staff, so they probably don't do "general duties" tasks like walking a beat and so on.  I think they were out getting lunch, or a coffee.

Another defaced RTA traffic control box - the yellow arrow is pointing at Angela's office.

Graffiti opposite the Five Dock council library - just off Fred Kelly Place.  Again, a short walk from Angela's office.

Same location, different business.

Same area again.

Also opposite the library.  I have driven past this spot and seen Angela standing on the footpath chatting to patrons at the cafe just to the right of this photo.  

Make up your own mind.  Does this ring true:

Ms D'Amore told Parliament the government already had a comprehensive plan for dealing with the problem.

This included tough laws to deter vandals; restricting access to spray-paint cans and fines for their sale to juveniles; and establishing an anti-graffiti action team.