By Casey Neill
Greater Dandenong police are now on Facebook and seeking likes, follows and shares.
Inspector Mark Langhorn and Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams launched the Greater Dandenong Eyewatch Facebook page at the Dandenong police station on Friday 9 December.
Insp Langhorn said the page would offer another platform for communication with the community.
“It’s a good way of building relationships with the parts of the community that are more socially savvy and use that type of platform for communication rather than other methods,” he said.
“It’s a good way of getting information out to the community, letting the community know what we’re doing.
“We can get feedback from the community as well to improve what we do.”
Insp Langhorn encouraged people in Greater Dandenong to like, follow and share the site.
“We do find it a way of solving crimes, finding missing persons, promoting road safety messages and the wider it’s shared and the wider it’s used, the more benefit it is,” he said.
“We want to give the people of Dandenong an opportunity to contribute to the safety of their community and stay up-to-date with the activity of their local police.”
Ms Williams said the pages empowered communities.
“The two-way conversations the page allows are its greatest benefit,” she said.
“We know that the community is usually the first to know crucial information.
“Eyewatch Facebook pages are great ways for them to quickly share this information with the police and their neighbours.
“I encourage anyone who lives in these areas to join the page, and help contribute to a safer community.”
The Dandenong Eyewatch page is the 24th established since the concept’s launch in 2012 and will add to the 200,000-plus Eyewatch followers.
Eyewatch allows police to share updates about crime and other community safety initiatives via Facebook, and local communities to connect with their police to share crime and safety information.
There are plans to roll out more Eyewatch pages next year.
Eyewatch is not a platform for reporting crime and is not a replacement for calling triple-zero in an emergency.
