Councillor Bobby Bourke has been out doorknocking ahead of the September 9 local government election and says crime has been one of the recurring themes from residents.

Perhaps what is less clear, though, is what role council might play in helping to bring crimes down. Law and order is primarily a state issue, administered and funded from Macquarie Street.

But, for his part, Cr Bourke took residents’ call for are you police station to be built in Kelso to state member Paul Toole.

He must have known from the start that such a request was always unlikely likely to happen, given Bathurst police station stands just a few kilometres away, but Cr Bourke was also willing to discuss the possibility of a “mobile” police statio.

And what the conversation with Mr Toole did reveal was the existence of a mobile police unit that is already on the streets. This must be a good thing.

High visibility policing is a proven deterrent criminals – and even those of us with no intention of committing a crime tend to take notice when we see police on the beat.

The mobile unit sometimes fill the role of a temporary station for officers out on the job but can also play an important community relations role, taking police to areas that might not visit often and given them the chance to speak with residents to collect local intelligence.

And that simply highlights the important role the community has to play in all policing. No matter how much money the state throws at law and order, the police can never be in all places at all times.

And when they’re not around, it’s up to the law-abiding men and women of Bathurst to be their eyes and ears.

Good police work relies on good information and, primarily, that information must come from regular people who have seen or heard something out of the ordinary.

The community also has a role to play in preventing crime in the first place by taking simple steps such as securing our homes and not leaving valuables in the car.

Police who do not have to investigate petty, opportunistic crimes have more time available for the jobs we wnat them to be doing.

We must work together to make the Bathurst region the best, and safest, it can be.