Thirty-one-year-old local business owner Oliver Forrester has been elected Chair of ACT Region Crime Stoppers, making him the youngest to chair any Crime Stoppers jurisdiction in the country.
Having served on the board for the past nine years, Mr Forrester told Canberra Daily he was excited by the opportunity to lead the organisation.
On the agenda is connecting with younger Canberrans and utilising his background in digital transformation to improve their online reporting platform and make filing as easy as possible.
“We know that the quality of reporting that we get through our online capability is really fantastic,” he said. “We want to encourage people to be aware and be the eyes and ears of the community and report what they see.”
When it comes to submitting a report with Crime Stoppers, any and every detail is important – no matter how small or insignificant it might seem.
“You might not necessarily have the full piece of the puzzle, but that bit of information, or that thing that you go ‘oh, maybe that’s not right’, can be the difference for investigators,” Mr Forrester said.
“Time of day, locations, has it happened before? The more specific you can be, the better your report will be.”
Nationally, Crime Stoppers receives on average a report every two minutes, resulting in approximately 100 arrests a week.
Without local figures on hand, Mr Forrester said the ACT consistently performs above the national mean.
Crime Stoppers received half a million contacts across the country last year, of which the ACT has the highest per capita rate.
“We get a steady flow of reports every day,” he said. “Canberrans really do report because it’s the right thing to do.
“The reason this program is important is it helps keep our city safe, it really does provide meaningful outcomes.”
A proud Canberran, Mr Forrester sees his work through ACT Region Crime Stoppers as a way to give back through an initiative he holds dear.
“Crime does happen everywhere, but we’re lucky in many ways that the kinds of crime here are not like they are in other parts of the world,” he said.
“People want to report because they want to keep this city being so fantastic and so friendly. this is a really good way to achieve that.”
Mr Forrester will chair a newly formed executive all aged under 40, making it the youngest of any Australian Crime Stoppers jurisdiction. Additionally, 50 per cent are female.
“We’re really representative and progressive, and I think that’s going to help us be a better board and be a good example of what a board should look like,” he said.
Mr Forrester hopes the youthful leadership team will allow ACT Region Crime Stoppers to better connect with younger Canberrans.
“Our specific focus is to help connect with young Canberrans, without losing sight of having to keep connected with older Canberrans as well.”
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