Page 5369 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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ACT Policing has also significantly reduced the robbery rate in 2010-11, decreasing the number of robberies by 22 per cent. A significant contribution to this result has been the collaborative work of ACT Policing and the Australian Federal Police through Operation Laverda. This operation involved investigations into a number of aggravated robberies committed over the preceding year on clubs and TAB outlets in the territory.
The offenders in these cases would enter business premises armed with firearms and escape with substantial sums of money. The main suspects were arrested in January this year. Operation Laverda also involved investigations into a number of aggravated robberies on fast food restaurants and similar targets in the ACT over 2009-10. Several teenagers were arrested and charged over these incidents.
Another outstanding result, important to us all, is the marked decrease in the number of alcohol-related arrests in our city between December 2010 and August 2011. We have seen a decrease of 20.68 per cent in alcohol-related arrests compared to the same time in the previous year. In real people terms, we saw 1,864 arrests for alcohol-related matters from December 2010 to August 2011, down from 2,350 arrests for the previous period in the previous year. This is a great result for our community. There are fewer alcohol-related crimes being committed in our community, fewer requirements for our police to go and address alcohol-related crime and violence.
Of course, this is driven directly by the reforms that the Labor government put in place with its new liquor licensing laws. The new liquor licensing laws and the associated fee structure have delivered additional resources for our police to ensure that they have the people on the ground to deal with these circumstances. This is the result of government funding for the alcohol crime targeting team.
This 10-person team commenced operation in tandem with the introduction of the Liquor Act in 2010. They have operated together to reduce alcohol-related violence. The changes to the Liquor Act allow for the issuing of criminal infringement notices to individuals for minor street offences. From December 2010 to June 2011, a total of 353 notices were issued to individuals for lower level offences which may otherwise have resulted in an arrest.
The significant reduction in crime could not have been achieved without a robust partnership between ACT Policing and the Justice and Community Safety Directorate. Central to this is the policing agreement which provides for me, as the minister, to make a ministerial direction that guides the Chief Police Officer on his annual policy, priorities and goals. Of note are the special focus areas in the most recent ministerial direction that I signed in June this year, with a particular emphasis on property crime and alcohol-related crime and liquor industry regulation.
I am delighted that the Chief Police Officer and his officers have been very successful in following through on the government’s expectations around reductions in property crime and alcohol-related crime and violence, and I congratulate them again on their efforts. However, the government will be building on these significant results. The government is currently finalising a new property crime reduction strategy for the period 2012-15.
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