Police, What a Good Idea!

[Chimo]

Hi All

Isn't this a good idea?

Maybe something similar could work here if nationwide! # Boats and trailers included.

Who does this need to be shown to in order to get something similar?

http://www.police.govt.nz/service/maritime/stolen.html


Cheers

Chimo

[Roughasguts]

Show it to the office of the minster for Police in your state.
Or your local MP to forward the idea.

Geez not many boats stolen in NZ, maybe this is the reason why.

[bootyinblue]

What a great idea.... We regularily get internal flyers to Be On Lookout For XYZ type of vessel, car, person and sometimes these are posted in stations for the public to see, but how readily accessible is the information here.

Occasionally you will see something suss happening at a ramp, take a note of car regos and then jump on the net when you get home and whammo... there is a pic of the boat you saw being towed away by the new 'owners'

How good would it feel to re unite a boatie with his boat and at the same time see the perpetrators face the courts.

[Scalem]

Makes you wonder why we don't have anything similar.

Next we might suggest Ausfish have a "Missing Boats" tab in the boating section. That could be a go couldn't it?? What a way to be involved in the recovery of someone's 2nd love ( if they are married it would be??)

We could broadcast from top to bottom of Australia and even overseas far more quickly than the police, because we are the majority on the water. If you stole a boat, you should be afraid of using it for fear of some Ausfish spy identifying the boat - that might even make them think twice about stealing it!!

Scalem

[Wal555]

Thats a great incentive but limited because they have to rely on people going to their web page to get the information, far better to push it on to interested parties who could effectively distribute it. Where I work we have a web page dedicated to new information which nobody looks at, put it on the board in the meal room and almost everybody see it.

Cheers

Wal.

[Chimo]

Hi Wal, Scalem and all


But moving back to the issue being raised.............

a marine police web site with stolen boats, trailers, jetskis etc as in NZ.

(Currently seeking their approval to apply their system here) If the NZ type setup was applied here the software is in existance with the bugs out of it so thats a saving.

with input from the insurance companies where the item was insured but

primary information for the police web site sourced from crime reports (that you need a number off for an insurance claim)

If we get this up and going then for sure download the info and put it on your notice board! and in the boating section on Ausfish.

We may number 16000 but there are a lot of other eyes out there not to mention police with the authority to do more than take a photo or ring someone.

The country wide police forces get emailed updates of crime now but extra eyes with info means the crime stopper potential as well as recovery and potential to lay charges and get the odd conviction has to be enhanced with this NZ based system or something similar, in place here.

We also need support from the insurance industry too; there are a few of you on the site; to help with this eg names to chase. What about it!

This could even make carparks at boat ramps a safer bet to park at. (I believe in the tooth fairy too ;D) but you have to have a go.

Cheers

Chimo

[subzero]

I tried to do something along these lines about 3 years ago for Moreton Bay on our VMR website. We actualy had several people contact the unit so we started posting details but slowly it died a natural death withoput the support of the people with the bulk of the info.
I contacted Water Police and they said that I should go through one of the major insurers such as Club Marine and that they thought it was a good idea and said that they would support it. (How I am not sure as they would not give me the information).
I contacted Club Marine and got shoved from pillar to post. Numerous emails, numerous phone calls, eventually ended up with one of their ######## local reps who was supposed to look after me as Club Marine said they would supply the info. After a couple of months spent contacting their Rep on a weekly basis I gave up... every week he would say the same thing, very busy this week, I will get the info out to you next week. Yea right. (I bet you if I was insuring a boat and handing over money he wouldnt have been to busy).

My conclusion, Club Marine dont really care about advertising for free to recover stolen boats. Why, because they must charge excessive premiums and are not really geared to recover stolen boats if it takes any effort on their part to get off their fat backsides and do something about it. Did I mention insurance companys piss me off!!!

Cheers Lloyd

BTW, if you click this link Club Marine do have something along these lines.
http://www.clubmarine.com.au
In their site search for the word stolen, you will get a few results

[seabug]

"Geez not many boats stolen in NZ, maybe this is the reason why."

If you look at the different types of missing boats there are
approx. 214 boats of different types listed as stolen 1999-2006

Given a much smaller population in NZ it seems a lot.

Does anyone have any figures for Australia.

Regards
Seabug :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

[Chimo]

Hi Guys

Re "BARS" Boat Alert & Recovery System;

Aim:
The idea continues to be based on an efficient easy to access, Aust wide (eventually) system as used in NZ to better recover stolen gear and hopefully, in an ideal world, make it less attractive for thieves to target marine stuff as the chances of getting caught are higher with this system and DataDots in place SO they pick easier targets and
"Don't even think about knocking off our boats, trailers or other gear!"

There has been some action on this so with some more work we may yet see a system in place here.

Associated Need:
The increased use of "Data Dots" or similar is something we need to adopt to aid identification of cars, boats trailers and misc gear. It probably needs to be adopted as were trailer hitch locks to keep insurance premiums as low as possible and make it easier to trace gear when the Police and others do checks.

Action To Date:
1 The NZ police have been back in touch with me and have approved the use of their system in Aus. A NZP officer is to assist with this as required.

2 The Insurance Council of Aust are interested and after they were advised of the scheme have tasked an officer to look at how they could assist with the system. Will get more from them later.

3 The QPS have an officer assigned to investigate and develop the proposal with industry and community input so I'll keep sheepdogging this and see how far we can take it.

Requirements:
1 Any suggestions or advice or comments will be gratefully received.

2 To look at Aust wide coverage we do need advice regarding Police to contact in States other than Qld, so any names, contact details / email addresses of officers would best be PMed to me please. The sooner they are on board and a part of the development of this the better.

So guys, thats the progress report so far and time will tell where and how far we get with it.

Cheers

Chimo

[FNQCairns]

That's good news, if governments right arm the insurance industry likes it, the idea is home and hosed, hopefully soon!

It would be a buzz to re-unite a lost boat and esp so if it were an uninsured lost boat.

cheers fnq

[subzero]

Well done Chimo, looks like you have some good support comming and maybe you can get this up and running. It will be a fantastic service, one we can all utilise.
Cheers Lloyd

[toymod]

This is a grerat idea nice work ;)

[sid_fishes]

lloyd,mate it seems you are a true boaties hero, with the work you do for the vmr, the lincense gig you do for us and the vmr and now this mate well done and chimo thanks for going one step further cheer ian