What Can I Do?
As mentioned in Lesson 2, information about possible importation and exportation of illicit drugs should be reported to the Australian Federal Police while information about local drug manufacturers, drug dealers and drug users should be reported to state and territory police. A list of federal, state and territory police contact information can be found here.
If citizens wish to report any form of illicit drug crime anonymously this can be reported to Crime Stoppers either nationally or via the state and territory organisations.
Remind students that if they are in Australia and in immediate danger or at risk of harm due to criminal drug activity, call triple zero (000). This will link them immediately to the local police. Staying safe is their number one priority.
Crime Stoppers
Crime Stoppers is Australia’s most trusted information receiving service for people wanting to share what they know about illicit drug criminal activity without saying who they are. There is a national Crime Stoppers and eight Crime Stoppers organisations operating in every state and territory in Australia. They work closely with police, media, and the community to help solve, reduce, and prevent crime by collecting information and passing on those details to police and other law enforcement agencies to help keep communities and families safe.
In this lesson students will explore their national, state or territory Crime Stoppers website to look at drug crime resources and the reporting process.
- Show students the Crime Stoppers scenarios They’ll never know it was you who protected yourself and your family and ask them to discuss the key messages in each video. Ask students to identify the key information that would have been shared with Crime Stoppers.
- Ask students to share possible scenarios in their school/community and work lives where they may see drug crime activity that could be reported to Crime Stoppers. View the Crime Stoppers resource, What you should try to remember on an interactive whiteboard or provide students with a copy of the document. Conduct a shared reading on the information. Show the video Your fav fashion girlie busts a dr*g deal. Explain that the video will be shown a second time and students are to write down what they observed using the What you should remember resource as a guide. Conduct a Pair and Share exercise to review their observations.
- Show students the Crime Stoppers Reporting Statistics for 2023 on an interactive whiteboard. Provide students with graph paper and ask them to draw either a bar or column graph using the statistics on the whiteboard to show the types and percentages of crimes reported to Crime Stoppers in 2022. Remind students about the key elements of the graph such as the title, the two axis and using an appropriate scale. Once completed ask the following questions about their state or territory (If students are from Victoria, they may wish to look at the national information.):
- What are the key types of crimes reported to Crime Stoppers?
- What is the most reported category?
- Why do you think this is the most reported category?
- Ask students to break into pairs and provide them access to a computer and the Crime Stoppers Australia (Alternatively conduct this activity as a class via an interactive whiteboard.) Explain that they are to explore the national Crime Stoppers site as well as their own state or territory website to find information about drug crime. Discuss as a class what they discovered and how it might be relevant to them as citizens.
- Ask students to look at the How it works page on the Crime Stoppers Australia website. Discuss how the Crime Stoppers reporting process works. Emphasise the importance of anonymity. Explore and discuss the type of information required when making a report. Using one of the Crime Stoppers Know The Signs resources, ask students to write down the key information they would need to provide Crime Stoppers if they were reporting illicit drug crime activity. Pair and share their ideas.
- Conclude the lesson by asking students to complete the Know the Signs posters they designed in Lesson 3 adding relevant police and Crime Stoppers contact details. Display the posters and discuss as a class how to highlight the issue of police drug crime and reporting to the wider school community. This could include displaying posters or inviting a member of the police drug crime unit or Crime Stoppers to speak at an assembly.