Page 2752 - Week 09 - Thursday, 27 September 2007
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throwing incidents to try to ascertain trends in locations, times and days of incidents. This will help with a more targeted approach. So we have a dedicated team and we have intelligence and monitoring to support that team.
Members of the specialist response and security tactical response team are also involved with the investigations group. They are providing unmarked vehicles and plain-clothes members where we can identify particular hot spots of activity. Again, there is a dedicated response in place by the police. In addition, any reported rock throwing incident is treated as a priority by police communications, which ensures the immediate dispatch of a patrol to the location. This maximises the opportunity of gathering evidence, as well as the best possible chance of apprehending the offenders.
As part of the suburban policing strategy, police are also attending schools within the ACT to gather intelligence, to highlight the dangers of throwing objects at vehicles and to encourage students to report any information to Crime Stoppers or the police. In addition, the general duties and territory investigations group members continue proactively to patrol Canberra bus interchanges to focus on antisocial behaviour at these locations. Policing has also undertaken uniform patrols on buses on identified target routes. However, due to the random nature of these incidents, successful targeting is extremely difficult. But, as can be seen, police are undertaking a very dedicated and specific campaign. My colleague Mr Hargreaves has previously outlined measures undertaken to provide greater protection to bus passengers and drivers, including the fitting of shatterproof film to drivers side windows back in 2005 to give greater protection to drivers.
I hope that gives the Assembly some sense of the seriousness and urgency with which the government are treating this issue. We have strong penalties in place, we have a dedicated police operation in place and we have cooperation with the public and private transport industry to identify further measures. The government are proposing today to amend Mr Pratt’s motion because we believe that the most significant issue here is to develop a better understanding of the psychological and sociological reasons behind this type of behaviour. That, in my mind, is the most significant challenge. Why does this happen? Why do some young people think it is a great idea to throw rocks at a bus or a vehicle? Why do they have such disregard for the safety and wellbeing of those people who are travelling on the roads? We need to get to the heart of these matters.
The government believes an independent study to investigate this trend and analyse it, through a body such as the Australian Institute of Criminology, is perhaps the best way to understand these issues. There is data in other jurisdictions. It requires, in the government’s view, detailed analysis by experts in the analysis of crime data, the analysis of trends and a focus on measures that have been effective to date in addressing these issues.
The government does not believe that the very broad-ranging select committee inquiry proposed by Mr Pratt will add much to this issue. We understand it is highly random in nature, we understand it is difficult to target and we understand that it is mostly perpetrated by juveniles. The challenge is to look at the data and the experience in other jurisdictions. The data should be assessed by a criminologist, who can do the
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