Community Safety
A priority under Mildura Rural City Council's Community Health & Wellbeing Plan 2021-2025 is that community members are safe and secure. Our goal is to ensure that all community members feel safe and can live their life free from abuse and violence.
The Community Health & Wellbeing Plan addresses the drivers of direct and indirect violence in the community, as well as the risk factors that make a person more vulnerable to violence. Strong correlations can be observed between people feeling and being safe in their community and their overall health and wellbeing.
Local priorities
Council and partners have identified the following areas as being of particular importance in our community:
- Preventing and mitigating family violence
- Preventing child neglect and maltreatment
- Reducing and mitigating homelessness
- Promoting community safety
Community safety involves the whole community taking action and involves Council, key stakeholders and the broader municipality to address the complex nature of community safety.
Council is committed to:
- Working to ensure everyone feels safe to be in their community at all times
- Continuing to work with partner agencies to prevent and mitigate crime
Promoting Community Safety
The perceived and actual safety of public spaces is vital in ensuring those spaces are accessible and usable to all. When people do not perceive public spaces as safe their independence is reduced. Improving public safety will allow community members to fully engage with the community and public life at all hours, while providing more opportunities for outdoor exercise and encouraging more people to walk and cycle.
Mildura has experienced a slight rise in crime over the past five years, with close to steady rates of property crime, a moderate rise in violent crime, and a significant rise in drug crime driving that trend. In 2021/2022, Mildura had the fifth highest rate of crime in the State (Crime Statistics Agency Victoria, 2022).
The perception of safety in the community has not changed significantly in the past five years, with around 30% of Victorian women, and around 10% of Victorian men feeling unsafe walking down their street alone at night in 2019 (Victorian Population Health Survey, 2019). The significant disparity between men and women in this regard highlights the importance of gender equality measures in achieving community safety.
The Community Safety Action Plan
This document was developed by Council and updated annually to support the perceived and actual safety of the community. It is developed in partnership with Victoria Police.
The high level priorities of the plan (detailed below) reflect that the needs of the community will change over time, and by having an annual action plan, the approach to safety is able to remain responsive and relevant:
- Safe Places – To design and maintain our city to reduce crime and enhance public safety and perceptions of safety.
- Safe People – To improve social inclusion and community participation to create strong safe and resilient communities.
- Safe Facts – To increase community knowledge through education and information to help reduce the opportunity for crime and injury.
Know Your Neighbours
Knowing your neighbours is one of the best ways to improve safety and connection within your community. Knowing each other means we look out for each other. When an emergency strikes, it's our neighbours who’ll be first to respond, well before emergency services can get to us.
Get Reporting
Become the 'eyes and ears' of your community. It is important to always report:
An emergency by ringing 000 if:
- someone is seriously injured or needs urgent medical help
- your life or property is being threatened or in danger
- you have just witnessed a serious accident or crime.
Any crime, or if you see something suspicious by contacting Crime Stoppers Victoria on 1800 333 000
Emergency Numbers