Lucy Carter reported this story on Monday, March 14, 2016 12:15:00

ELEANOR HALL: It started as a community program to address the escalating use of the drug, ice, in small towns in New South Wales and Victoria.



Now the 'Dob in a Dealer' campaign is being rolled out across New South Wales, as part of the Federal Government's crackdown on methamphetamine use.



Lucy Carter reports.



LUCY CARTER: The small town of Wellington in the central west of New South Wales developed the unfortunate nickname of 'Antarctica' because of the huge amount of ice being used by residents.



With a population of just 5,000 people, addiction and crime-related problems were causing issues for almost everyone in town.



Last year, Wellington police adopted a local 'Dob in a Dealer' policy.



ALISON CONN: We've been amazed at its success, as have the police.



LUCY CARTER: Alison Conn is the manager of the community group Wellington Information and Neighbourhood Services.



ALISON CONN: We've had over 100 reports go in through the Dob in a Dealer project and as a direct result of Dob in a Dealer we've had 15 arrests and they have actually varied.



It hasn't just been dealer arrests, it's been firearm offences, burglaries.



LUCY CARTER: She says the program has had a direct impact on drug use in the town.



ALISON CONN: The really important thing behind it Lucy, is not so much for us as a town arresting people, us as a town it's from saving some of our residents from using drugs.



And anecdotally we have seen that there are a number of people that no longer have access to drugs and no longer use drugs.



So that's been a fantastic result from our point of view.



LUCY CARTER: The success of the Dob in a Dealer program in Wellington and in parts of regional Victoria last year caught the interest of the Federal Government.



In August, the then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced $1 million of funding to be dedicated towards rolling the program out across Australia.



In New South Wales, that process is starting today.



Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Barrie is also a director of Crimestoppers New South Wales



I think we'll get a fantastic outcome, you know the community are very keen to assist police in identifying dealers in particular.



They understand the harm it's doing to their community, the harm it's doing to the individuals and family units.



And it strikes particularly hard in those smaller communities that perhaps don't have the support levels around them to assist.



LUCY CARTER: How does it work?



PETER BARRIE: Well simply where Crimestoppers are going to in New South Wales, 21 different locations, we are launching in Redfern today.



And we are working with the police and local communities and going to a number of different areas throughout that fortnight just to spread the message and essentially a simple one.



You can do something about this, call Crimestoppers, every little piece of information assists us and we've seen that the community are willing to do that.



You know we are getting some great results in terms of both the calls that we receive from Crimestoppers continuously increasing.



But also in the number of arrests and identification of these clandestine labs that are causing so much harm.



LUCY CARTER: And it is kept anonymous?



PETER BARRIE: Absolutely. So when people call Crimestoppers they have choices that they can make, if they wish to assist police in providing their details they can do that, sometimes that makes it a lot easier for our investigators to work with them in getting all the information they need.



But quite certainly they can do that anonymously as well.



So if they wish to remain anonymous the call taker will respect that and they will just assist them in getting the information to the police.



LUCY CARTER: Police say the Dob in a Dealer program is about making drug use and crime a local community issue.



Wellington's Alison Conn says she believes it will be effective on a larger scale.



ALISON CONN: If everybody embraces it as an individual community it will work very well in those individual communities. It's not a top down approach, it's a bottom up approach and that's what's really important. That's what works in communities today.



ELEANOR HALL: That's Alison Conn from Wellington Information and Neighbourhood Services ending that report from Lucy Carter.