Evaluation of the ‘Safety First at Rosny Park’ Project

The ‘Safety First at Rosny Park’ Project aimed to enhance Clarence City Council’s crime prevention activities and public bus transport system. It aimed to provide a surveillance function to deter antisocial behaviour at identified trouble spots in the Rosny Park Transit Bus Mall and on buses serving Rosny Park and surrounding suburbs. Funding for this project was provided by the National Community Crime Prevention Programme (NCCPP). The project had four main objectives: Objective 1: Reduce anti social behaviour, crime and the fear of crime on Clarence’s public bus transport system by installing a CCTV system and conducting a public education campaign. Objective 2: Increase the perception of Rosny Park Transit Bus Mall and Metro buses as safe places by conducting a public education campaign to promote CCTV as an effective crime prevention measure. Objective 3: Increase the capacity of police to identify perpetrators, victims and witnesses of offences committed in locations monitored by CCTV through enhanced availability and quality of evidence captured on CCTV systems. Objective 4: Undertake a process evaluation of the project in relation to project management, planning and finance. The Clarence City Council, in collaboration with Tasmania Police and Metro Tasmania, set about planning to achieve these objectives by installing six (6) CCTV cameras in the Rosny Park Transit Bus Mall and conducting a public education campaign to advertise the existence of the cameras. The impact of the CCTV cameras on crime and antisocial behaviour, and on perceived levels of safety, in the Transit Mall was evaluated by the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES) at the University of Tasmania.