While Sydney is a safe place to live, work and play, we have a responsibility to increase and enhance community health and safety.
For all emergencies please dial 000 (triple zero). If your matter is not an emergency, call 131 444 or contact your local police station.
24 hours, 7 days a week
Whether you live or work in the City of Sydney’s local area, it is important to us that you feel safe at all times.
We know that good preparation and well-implemented strategies can not only improve the quality of life of our residents but also save lives.
Sydney enjoys a reputation as one of the safest and most liveable cities in the world. From time to time, there can be emergencies in the city requiring a significant coordinated response from emergency services and other government agencies such as health and transport.
Severe storms with strong winds and lightning strikes, heavy rainfall and flash flooding, and extreme heat during a heatwave are the most likely emergency and disaster impacts for local residents, workers and visitors in the City of Sydney's local area.
Other impacts could include health emergencies such as a major flu (influenza) outbreak causing service disruptions in the local area.
It is our priority to do everything in our power to ensure that everyone in our community has access to help when needed and feels safe at both home and work.
The Sydney and North Sydney CBD evacuation plan was developed by emergency service agencies and government including:
You can help effectively manage evacuations in the city by:
The Office of Emergency Management provides information for individuals, councils, community service organisations and businesses to become disaster ready through its Get Ready Sydney initiative.
To manage a coordinated response, emergency service agencies in the local area have worked with the City of Sydney to develop the local emergency management plan. The plan describes the local arrangements to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.
Building/business owners and managers should develop an emergency management plan suited to their local environment.
You can help effectively manage emergency events in the city.
Our emergency preparation guides will provide you with some simple steps you can take to prepare for these emergencies or potential disasters and there are many sources of information to help you before, during and after an emergency or disaster.
We work on crime prevention campaigns and initiatives with NSW Police and other organisations to continue to reduce the already-low crime rates in Sydney.
Crimes ‘against the person’ such as assault and robbery are unavoidable in large cities but we work hard to counter street crime and violence.
Our community safety action plan sets out our contribution to making Sydney a safe and resilient place to live, visit, work and study.
The sheer volume of vehicle and pedestrian traffic in Sydney means road safety is a major focus for the City of Sydney.
To keep our roads as safe as possible, we have a 40km/h speed limit in central Sydney. Footpaths are being widened and better lighting is also being installed.
Our road safety officers work through our connecting schools program to support school principals and parent groups to address concerns around access and road safety.
Our focus on transport and access and its related campaigns aim to make roads in the local area safer for pedestrians.
The NSW Government, on behalf of all local councils, has commissioned not-for-profit organisation GIVIT to coordinate the donation of goods and services in bushfire-affected communities.
While affected communities are grateful for the donations of food and supplies, they request these are no longer provided directly. There simply aren't enough resources to manage and distribute donated goods as efforts are focused on rebuilding local communities.
GIVIT captures public and corporate pledges of assistance online and helps to coordinate and manage donations to those in need.
The organisation works with local councils, charities and community groups to match a donation to a recipient in need.
This ensures those in need get exactly what they need when they need it most. It also eliminates the need for storage and sorting of donations and potential disposal of unwanted goods.
Money received by GIVIT is used to buy essential items from local businesses to help local economic recovery
Do not dial 000 (triple zero) for general advice or information. Only call 000 (triple zero) during a life-threatening emergency requiring police, ambulance or fire and rescue help.
For non-emergency situations call the Police Assistance Line on 131 444 or your nearest police station, which you can find in the local White Pages telephone directory.
