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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (22 October) . . Page.. 3944 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

overtime. There is a real problem when people tell Mr Pratt, they tell me, phones are ringing out in police stations and there is a real difficulty for police often to actually get out there and attend incidents.

That is something that Mr Pratt has spoken of in his speech and is something I think most of us in the Assembly are probably getting complaints about. As someone who has been here for a long time, I don't think I have ever seen a situation quite like that where people say the phones ring out at police stations. You get a consistent number of complaints by people that actually the police can't get out to certain incidents.

Cars can be good if used properly, but in terms of the animal-led recovery, the bikes, the non-motorised vehicles, and the horses have been pretty effective. I remind the minister of the horse patrol which nabbed about four vandals and perhaps would-be thieves breaking into cars and vandalising cars at Bruce Stadium a couple of years ago during a Brumbies game. They caught these vandals red-handed and then called up some support and these vandals were duly arrested. They have also seen people breaking into houses in suburbs simply because they are riding around the back of the houses and they can see people over the top of fences. Again, that is a very effective form of deterrence and a very visible presence, as indeed were bikes.

Mr Hargreaves talked about his own electorate in Tuggeranong. I think the police bike patrol in Tuggeranong was particularly effective when it operated. As a resident of Belconnen, I remember saying to my colleagues in government, "Come on, guys, let's get one in Belconnen,"because it was so effective in Tuggeranong. His comments in relation to that show his desire to see bike patrols throughout Canberra. I think it is a very visible form of police presence and a very effective one as well. Again, it led to a lot of criminals being apprehended and to a lot of arrests. Bikes can go places police cars simply can't.

I think Mr Wood perhaps shows his ignorance there again by making trite comments like animal-led police recoveries. As for the police dogs, again, they are a very effective tool in fighting crime, especially when you have to break up things like minor riots or a whole series of drunks who are having a punch-up or something in a pub. The police dog squad has been used very effectively for those sorts of things-from the Summernats, I recall, back in 1989 when I went out and actually saw them in operation, through to some problems we have had in the past in Civic late at night. Apart from the other uses they have as well, again, I think it is a very good point for Mr Pratt to raise.

There are some really worrying trends. I have heard of people being burgled six times. I have heard, for example, of that tragic murder and the tragic injury at the Latham shops. That particular place had been held up a series of times.

There are problems at shopping centres like Florey, which you are well aware of, Mr Speaker. Again, the police are doing their best to assist, to stop those problems developing too much and to counter them. But they are really constrained in terms of their resources.

I heard of a lady in Jamison who ran an embroidery shop and who has actually ceased to operate because she has been broken into so many times and also was subject to shoplifting and other criminal activities. She has actually had a crime-induced

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