Version: 1.3 5 August 2004	Approved: Board of Governors 5 May 1993
	Administered: Human Resources	Next Review: August 2006

POLICY, STRATEGY AND GOALS

Charles Sturt University has introduced a safety and security program for persons and property on campus called Campus Watch. The Campus Watch program is implemented under the University's Occupational Health and Safety Policy.

The aims and objectives of this program are similar to those of Neighbourhood Watch which operates within the wider community. Campus Watch seeks to encourage safety practices among students, staff and University visitors to lessen the opportunity for attacks on and crimes against both persons and property. The introduction of Campus Watch reinforces the commitment of the University to reducing the opportunity for personal injury, crime and unreported incidents within its precincts. Visitors to the University are considered together with the students and staff as they are often the group most in need of information to preserve their personal safety in an unknown environment. For these reasons, the Campus Watch program will have a highly visible presence on campus, serving the information needs of all who attend the University and as a deterrent to potential wrong doers.

Central to the purpose and activity of Campus Watch will be a network of people who will promote awareness of the best possible safety practices and means for reducing incidences of attacks on persons and property. The network will provide two way communication between campus users and management on the safety and security of persons and property and in particular to keep management informed of situations as they develop so that quick remedial action can be taken.

Signs displaying the Campus Watch symbol and security telephone number have been introduced across campus. Some signs have been placed in locations where they remind users of the campus of the potential risks within that location, while others maintain a deterrent and publicity effect.

The security telephone extensions 32288 (Wagga Wagga), 84999 (Bathurst), 16888 (Albury) and 19888 (Thurgoona) have been provided for the use of the Campus Watch program. The numbers will be available 24 hours per day. Alternatively you may call 0-000 which provides access to the public emergency telephone service.

If you see or are involved in an incident you should call 32288 (Wagga Wagga), 84999 (Bathurst), 16888 (Albury) or 19888 (Thurgoona):

1. To ask for assistance in a threatening or potentially harmful situation.
2. To report incidents which are considered illegal, or in any way put at risk the safety or security or property or lives of people on campus.
3. To suggest ways of improving the personal safety needs of campus users.

AIMS OF CAMPUS WATCH

• To take a pro-active stance on issues of safety and security of persons and property,
• To provide a safety and security program for persons and property which will reduce incidents and unreported occurrences of personal injury and crime,
• To foster personal safety practices among campus users consistent with occupational health and safety strategies,
• To provide a process for advocacy to preserve personal safety and workplace security requirements.

POLICY

The University accepts its duty of care for users of the campus and undertakes to facilitate Campus Watch as part of its program for the maintenance of a safe, secure and healthy University environment. As part of the Campus Watch program, the University will provide:

• adequately lit pathways
• a maintenance program for lighting on campus
• a support network for victims of crime
• appropriate and accessible telephone communications system within the University
• a consultative process with staff and students

and will seek to:

• reduce risks as they are identified
• encourage safe practices
• develop facilities and services to better protect campus users
• promote awareness for improved personal and property safe practice and security.

In response the University expects all users of the campus to:

• accept a duty of care for their own person;
• take responsibility for and ownership of their personal safety needs; and
• use Campus Watch as a means to suggest improvements where personal or property safety falls outside the limits of the individual.

STRATEGIES AND GOALS

Each campus OH&S Committee has oversight of and in addition to their legislative functions and powers, the requirement:

1. To implement the Campus Watch Policy and its schedule of delegated responsibilities for staff, and where possible students, which maintain and develop the safety and security program. This includes:

• To develop a schedule of delegated responsibilities.
• To monitor the introduction and implementation of the program.
• To evaluate and report to the Head of Campus at agreed regular intervals on the effectiveness of the program, the delegated responsibilities, strategies and contribution to the campus community.

2. To promote Campus Watch as a means to contribute to the safety and security needs of persons and property on campus.

• To establish a system of posters across campus to raise awareness of the program and its aims.
• To incorporate use of the Campus Watch symbol promoting the safety message into appropriate activities and work practices.
• To make known to students and staff the appropriate actions to take which enhance their personal safety and community development on campus.
• To liaise with neighbouring homes as "Safe Houses", or through the "Neighbourhood Watch" program.

3. To make known to staff, students and, where possible, visitors to the University, the existence of the safety program for persons and property in order to lessen the incidence and effect of poor personal safety practices.

• To publicise Campus Watch both inside and outside the University as a deterrent to the potential for crime and illegal conduct.
• To foster among students and staff an appreciation and knowledge that the campus is part of the wider community and is not immune to crime, abuse, social misconduct, nor the consequences of substantial reports of either illegal or improper acts.
• To preserve a safe campus environment by ensuring that any substantial offence against a person or property is prosecuted.
• To encourage students and staff to report, or to seek help from officers of the University when personal safety and the security of the campus is threatened.

4. To instil in all students and staff the implicit nature of personal ownership and duty of care for campus-based safety concerns.

• To demonstrate the required balance between pro-active safety arrangements and inappropriate and costly requests for additional security.
• To assess the need for improved personal safety measures for users of the campus and to provide appropriate remedial educational programs where deficiencies are found.
• To respond to requests and make effective arrangements for increased security where it is not possible for individual staff or students to take care of their own safety.

5. To implement an educational process for students and staff which imparts the purpose and pro-active arrangements required by Campus Watch Policy, its aims, goals and strategies.

• To conduct seminars and workshops on personal safety issues which affect students and staff.
• To hold regular meetings for information sharing within the network organisation of Campus Watch.