Cllr Wayne had recently seen a demonstration of microdotting property, to aid in its identification when recovered after theft. These tiny dots are hard to detect with the naked eye and difficult to remove. When scanned by a special reader, a dot shows a number unique to the owner thus enabling recovered property to be returned more quickly. Cllr Wayne also mentioned the ICE (In Case of Emergency) scheme for all owners of mobile phones. These are a list of next-of-kin contacts to be informed in an emergency situation, entered together under ICE in the mobile's phone book. These enable the emergency services to contact relatives quickly after an accident or other emergency. The recommendation is that six or seven numbers be included here.
Sgt Webb talked about the success the police are having in detecting and arresting graffiti artists and taggers. New covert operations have yielded very good results. Those caught have been made to clean off their "work", and this has been more successful in cutting down re-offending that court appearances. From 1st July, graffiti can be removed from private property if publicly visible, without the owner's consent if necessary, so that those property owners who do not respond to requests to contact the Council for removal can still have the graffiti cleaned off. Roadside graffiti is the responsibility of the Highways Department, not the GCCC, and has to be removed by them. However, keep the reports/photographs coming to either police or Council and these will be acted upon quickly.
Sgt Webb also mentioned that engraving is still a very effective identifier of stolen property, and until the microdot method becomes more widespread, is easier at present for the police to get engraved property back to its owners. It is also cheaper: an engraving tool costs from around $20 from Bunnings, and the microdot kits are around $60 -100 (depending on size). Engravings are fairly easy to do, and should follow the Queensland Police coding, consisting of the initials of your first name and family name, date of birth (in six-figure format), followed by the letter Q . One advantage of engraving is that its visibility can deter thieves because of the difficulty in selling-on the stolen goods. However, as microdotting becomes more widely used, this will probably become the preferred method of identification in the near future.
All present were able to put their questions and comments to our guests, and a very pleasant evening was happily rounded off with tea, coffee, biscuits and conversation.
Margaret McDermott
