Page 4093 - Week 13 - Thursday, 10 November 1994
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Madam Speaker, I found the background to the report particularly informative and interesting. The fact that the bulk of police resources is currently dedicated to single complaint, rapid response, reactive mobilisation is one of which, I suppose, we are all aware, without necessarily understanding the consequences. It means that police resources are largely deployed to deal with the results of crime rather than crime prevention.
It was also of great interest to me to note the social service nature of policing, and again I quote from the booklet:
... researchers discovered a large gap between the crime fighting rhetoric of police managers and the actual work of police. Although law enforcement is part of the police role, it is an over-emphasised part. Most of policing really involves work of a social service nature only subtly connected to law enforcement.
Madam Speaker, this exercise is a trial designed to test the hypothesis that a tripartite policing structure is operationally and administratively viable; country town policing is complementary to traditional policing; and country town policing will reduce the demand for police services. In relation to the third hypothesis, I would sound a note of caution, as I believe that it may well take more than 12 months for community perceptions of the police and policing to change sufficiently for any reduction in the demand for police services to be measurable.
Madam Speaker, I would also like to commend constables David Rugendyke and Michael Ward for volunteering to undertake this venture. I wish them well in this innovative program. Their efforts will be fundamental to the success of the program. Madam Speaker, I would also like the Minister to address what happens after the trial is completed. I would certainly hope that country town policing does not stop in Kaleen and Campbell and Ainslie while the success of the program is evaluated. I would also hope that, if the success of the program is apparent before the year is up, further "country towns" will be identified and policed according to the model as rapidly as possible.
Madam Speaker, the country town policing program is innovative and addresses a very real need in the community. I trust that it will prove to be successful and be implemented throughout Canberra very soon after the trial is completed, according to the identified needs of particular local communities. I believe that the program has the capacity to help the Australian Federal Police to meet these two policing principles enunciated by Sir Robert Peel many years ago:
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.
Madam Speaker, I wish the trial community policing program well, and I look forward to country town policing coming to my own local community.
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