Page 4059 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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First of all, what does the public in Canberra want of its police force? What type of police do they want? The Community Policing Advisory Committee was an excellent idea. It brought together people from various walks of life and with various interests, to bring about an excellent police force in the ACT.
There are a number of recommendations in the report of the committee. Under "Majority Community Views on Community Policing in the ACT", it referred to resources, as follows:
There is general support of the current level of police activity and a general concern that resources not be reduced.
Under "Specific Views of Various Sectors of the Community on Community Policing", it referred to young people being helped, particularly through the implementation of the police in schools program, increased police involvement in education, recreational facilities and other areas, and the value of having police involvement in youth worker training. Further on it spoke about the police mounted unit proposal, and I think this would be an excellent idea. It also talked about increased foot patrols being generally supported by recommendations from the small business sector.
I think we understand what people want from their police force. They want their police in Canberra to be visible. They want visible vehicles, visible police. They want them out on foot patrol where possible. They believe that there should not be fewer cars, but more. They want their police available after hours. Many people are concerned. For safety in certain circumstances, they find it important to have police available after hours. One of the recent community policing initiatives in the ACT - there have been many and they are commendable - is the bike patrol. What an excellent idea that is. Another is police in schools. This is an absolutely superb idea.
At the moment the Social Policy Committee in this Assembly is inquiring into behavioural problems in young people. We are trying to work out methods to assist young people to gain maturity with responsibility, and it is a difficult task. An excellent way to help young people, particularly those that find themselves alienated from society, at least in the area of law and order, is to encourage them to look upon police as people that can assist them. We know that police will assist them. The division between young people and the police that is apparent to some is not a desirable thing, and we should do all we can to reverse it. Some of the excellent community policing ideas that have been proposed move a long way toward that.
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