Police collaborate with UCOL students on crime prevention

Police collaborate with UCOL students on crime prevention initiative

Whanganui Police have teamed up with students from the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) to create a sticker and stencil aimed at spreading crime prevention messages to the community.

The local Puriri Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) wanted to promote the advantage of signing up to Operation SNAP — an initiative aimed at preventing and reducing property and burglary offending through registering for free your property serial numbers on the SNAP database.

"We wanted to involve the community in helping us design a sticker and stencil so we approached UCOL Whanganui School of Design to see if some of their students would be keen to create a concept for us," says Puriri Community Constable Vaughan Patching.

"It has been a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with the students. They have done an outstanding job with the both the design of the sticker and stencil.

"Crime prevention is a core part of policing and it's been great having the students and community get behind the initiative and get them thinking about what they can do to prevent and reduce offending in their community," says Constable Patching.”

Sean Johnson, a current Computer Graphic Design Masters student at UCOL Whanganui School of Design says he saw the project as a great opportunity to give back to the community of Whanganui. “I found that Vaughn was passionate for what he was trying to do and so I really enjoyed working with him.”

Whanganui UCOL Associate Dean Creative, Katrina Langdon says she is pleased to be involved in such a worthwhile community project. “Supporting our students to achieve their full potential to learn and contribute to their communities is one of our key goals."

The stickers will be printed by UCOL and given out to the community at a Safe as Houses initiative launch later this month. The initiative and launch is in partnership with forensic marking company SelectaDNA and involves the distribution of Crime Prevention Kits to over 400 homes in the Puriri Street area by teams made up of Police, Lions Club, Whanganui Rotary Clubs, Maori Wardens, and Community Patrols.

For more information about Operation SNAP and how you can protect your property visit: www.snap.org.nz

ENDS

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