Page 3545 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 12 October 1994
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this vision. A constant police presence in the suburbs will go some way to addressing the fear of crime in our community, especially among members of the community with the highest fear of crime - the elderly and women. These perceptions represent people's reality and must be addressed.
A joint evaluation of the pilot will be conducted by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Institute of Criminology. An independent consultant has also been commissioned to collect comparative data through community surveys. Further community evaluation of the pilot will be undertaken through the ACT Community Safety Committee. As the Assembly is aware, the Government established the Community Safety Committee to assist in identifying, solving and evaluating local safety issues. If the pilot is successful and is accepted by the community, Assistant Commissioner Dawson will introduce the scheme into other suburbs as resources allow. Madam Speaker, I believe that this is a very innovative approach to community policing which has the full support of the ACT Government and community.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.27): Madam Speaker, I am happy to join with the Government today in welcoming this initiative and commending it on its way. I was fortunate, with other members, to be present at the launch of the scheme in Belconnen a few weeks ago. I was impressed with the way in which the scheme was outlined and the goals which the scheme is designed to achieve, and I am confident that there is considerable opportunity here for success to be the hallmark of this endeavour. I believe, in particular, that the principle of bringing police operations down to a level where they interact with and are part of the community that those police serve is an extremely important development, and one which I feel confident, in theory at least, should produce positive results for policing and the fight against crime in this community.
I note in the introductory paragraphs of this paper that the Attorney has tabled a quote from Sir Robert Peel, who founded the first police force in 1829. Those words are:
The power of police to fulfil their duties is dependent upon public approval and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect. The police should strive to maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police.
It may be that we have come a long way since those words were first uttered; but the principles ought to be the same, even with the great changes that have occurred in the way in which police provide protection of various sorts to our community. Madam Speaker, I think that the two police chosen to pilot the program are very well equipped to do that job, and I look forward to seeing the success that they will enjoy in embarking on their respective beats.
The one note of caution that I sound in this matter, Madam Speaker, is simply a question about the resourcing of this exercise. I think that if this is successful there will need to be a capacity for all suburbs to have this kind of localised policing capacity, and for those police to have the time and the energy to be able to get around their suburbs and talk to individuals, to shopkeepers, to householders, at schools, and make themselves a part of the fabric of their local community. It will not, obviously, be possible to achieve that if
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