Frustrated residents gathered at Robertson Park on Wednesday to sign a petition calling for more police in Orange in the wake of the spree of stolen and burnt cars.
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The participants gathered following a social media call-out and the formation of a neighbourhood watch type group spearheaded by Debbie Thornton, which has close to 60 people involved.
About 20 people attended Wednesday’s event but Ms Thornton said Saturday’s event, which will also be held at the Robertson Park Rotunda at 10am should have a larger attendance and she’s hoping Member for Orange Phil Donato will also be present.
“The local police are doing their best, they are diverting from other things,” Ms Thornton said.
Along with lobbying for more police officers, Ms Thornton said Orange police need access to digital radios due to offenders having access to current scanners and she said she also wants to introduce a program of 40 days 40 adrenaline based challenges.
The local police are doing their best, they are diverting from other things.
- Debbie Thornton
She said the idea was to give children and teenagers a positive outlet to get an adrenaline high through as yet unconfirmed activities such as skydiving or sprint car racing.
Another idea she had was to hold a concert on Glenroi oval to take the area back.
“There’s some really good people in Glenroi it’s kind of sad,” she said.
“Some of the best charity work has come out of Glenroi.”
Among the charity work she mentioned were drought fundraisers such as water for Walgett, hay runs and food collections as well as Karlie Irwin’s Pay it Forward Initiative.
Among the people who attended the event was Jeanette Gersbach who said she wants to see a greater police presence and previous times she’s had to call police it has taken two to three hours for officers to arrive.
She also identified with victims of the current car thefts and destruction.
“I had [a car] burnt out two years ago and they’ve never found out who did it,” she said.
Narelle Percy and Mark Garey also attended the event and said there was an incident in their neighbourhood earlier this month when a party up the road from their house led to “young people” getting into a fight on the street and at one stage police drove past the group.
“This was 2am and [the group] moved on to where ever, then they were back at 5am,” Ms Percy said.
“I’ve got friends who are police and I know people who are police and they are working [hard], they just don’t have the numbers.
“How can they do their job if they don’t have the numbers?”
Other residents spoke of the problems of children and teenagers riding motorbikes day and night through Glenroi oval and escaping as soon as the police show up and of police response times.
The petitions will also be available at various businesses across Orange.
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