Page 1448 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 April 2005
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representatives of various external agencies, including the Department of Urban Services, the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, the NRMA, ACTION, ActewAGL, the ACT and regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Canberra Cabs, Australian Security Industry Association Ltd, the ACT Office of Fair Trading and ACT Corrective Services. It does not sound to me as though those agencies believe that we are not providing effective services.
The PCG meets on a regular basis in a proactive partnership approach to foster interagency cooperation and to address community capacity building in the area of crime prevention and urban design, the coordination of relevant agency resources, parallel with Halite operational activities, the use of relevant compliance authorities, and the sharing of information within legislative limits.
ACT Policing’s results are indicative not only of effective policing, but also of the government’s emphasis on whole-of-government approaches to addressing crime in our community. We cannot vest all responsibility for crime prevention and crime reduction with our police service. ACT Policing’s property crime reduction strategy, which focuses on the efforts of a range of agencies, including urban services, education and training, youth justice and ACT Corrections, together with the Department of Justice and Community Services, has addressed a number of overarching social issues to combat property crime at the source.
In the context of maximising the service delivered to the ACT community, ACT Policing proactively monitors and manages staffing numbers on a daily basis, taking into account the obvious fluctuations that will occur with attrition, retirements, transfers and resignations, together with the flow of base level recruitment and lateral intakes from other police jurisdictions throughout the year. Work force planning is an intricate and dynamic task in the policing environment and the government is well informed on a quarterly basis and, when required, a more regular basis about the status of policing numbers in the territory.
Current advice from ACT Policing indicates that the total funded strength equates to 787 full-time equivalents. Based on previously approved budget measures, this figure will increase to 796 FTE for the financial year 2005-06. As at 31 December 2004, the actual strength of the ACT community policing service provision sat at 808 FTE. This figure was made up of 598 sworn and 210 unsworn FTE. ACT Policing’s actual strength was temporarily increased at that time to address the increased operational demands of the period.
Contrary to Mr Pratt’s view that the government does not support policing in the territory, total policing numbers have risen by 33 FTE since the Liberal Party last held office. You can check that by looking at the report on government services for 2000-01 versus 2003-04. In addition, and more importantly, this government is committed to a comprehensive review of policing services. The government is well aware of the demand for increased community policing resources in the territory.
I can assure you that the ACT government is committed to the delivery of an appropriate level of policing, to deliver effective law enforcement, crime detection and prevention. It is not besotted with numbers. Dr Wedderburn was right. We need to concentrate on intelligence-led policing and we need to target particular crime initiatives. You can see
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