Neighbourhood Support Eastern Southland local area co-ordinator Karen Bellew has been hosting drop-in sessions at the Mataura and Gore Libraries and from next Wednesday a police officer will be joining her to help answer questions.
Neighbourhood Support and the police are partnered nationwide and recent returnee to Gore, Sergeant Rebecca Dore, has been named the support network’s police liaison officer.
Sgt Dore said the library sessions would be a nice connection between the two organisations and the community and would "hopefully just build and strengthen that", she said.
It would be nice for people to be able to come to a "small, relaxed" environment to have a chat, Ms Bellew said.
She was not expecting to hear of serious problems, but if a car always drove up your street loudly or the like, it could be good to have a conversation about what to do, she said.
Not everyone was technologically savvy and therefore could not report things online or use the non-emergency 105 number, Sgt Dore said.
"It’s good to bridge that, and they can just come to us and speak to us directly if they want to. So we can educate them from both sides of the fence."
Ms Bellew said in the past she had heard complaints from the public around things they thought were too small and were unsure whether they should go to the police about.
But such complaints were often long-term and Ms Bellew encouraged people experiencing such things to go to the police, even offering to accompany them.
"Sometimes people just need that little bit of support, just to get some peace of mind," she said.
Neighbourhood Support and the police will also be doing walkabouts together, in and around the main shops, for visibility and to involve the public.
People were more likely to remember things or say something to police when they felt comfortable and reminded of their presence, Ms Bellew said.
Their aim was to remind the public that Neighbourhood Support and the police worked together, Sgt Dore said.
The drop-ins will be every second Wednesday from 10am-noon in Mataura and 6pm-8pm in Gore, starting on July 23.
