A day in the life of Community Safety at Charles Sturt

At Charles Sturt, our Community Safety Officers are run off their feet every day meeting the needs of our community. The Community Safety Officer role is a varied one, dealing with all aspects of animal management and parking, as well as other seasonal requirements. While every single day looks different, a day in the life of one of our Officers can involve any of the below: • Processing customer requests (including complaints), responding to emails, finalising documentation. • Investigation of barking complaints:

Discussing the situation with the complainant and the dog owner. Once some recommendations to reduce barking have been provided to the dog owner, a period of several weeks is required before reassessing the problem (behaviour change can be a complex process). If the barking persists, barking dog diaries are completed by complainants and

Officers to ascertain the severity of the problem. Barking dog complaints are frequent, and the process takes lots of our

Officers’ time as they try to work with the owner to ensure the dog’s behavioural and mental needs are met, instead of resorting to punishment based or ‘quick fix’ approaches. • Rapid response to dog wandering at large reports (usually when the Officer is on

their way to another scheduled visit or meeting!): Dogs wandering at large are taken seriously, but often, by the time the Officer arrives, the dog has moved from the area. Wherever they can Officers encourage dogs to come to them using treats and allow them to move into the vans at their own pace. Our Officers love to be able to identify any contained dogs easily by microchip or ID tag, and return them home as quickly as possible. When returning wandering dogs home, Officers also discuss with the owner how the dog escaped the yard and what can be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again. • Rapid response to dog attack reports:

A formal investigation involving contacting the victim, talking to witnesses, identifying the dog and owner responsible, conducting interviews and processing control orders. Dog attack investigations and resulting legal documentation can take weeks or months to finalise, depending on the case. • Responding to parking complaints: In addition to dealing with cars that overstay their time limits, our Officers frequently respond to illegal parking complaints where inconsiderate drivers have blocked access to driveways, businesses, footpaths, ramps or bike lanes. • Processing and enforcing requests for cutting back overgrown foliage that restricts footpaths or that may become a fire hazard in the summer months.