Page 5002 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017
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ACT Policing—policies
(Question No 657)
Mrs Jones asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, upon notice, on 15 September 2017:
(1) What is the decision making process for deciding whether or not an organised rally will receive a police presence.
(2) If the decision is made that no police will be present at the rally, (a) what is the policy for advising the rally organisers of this decision and (b) what options are available to rally organisers to dispute this decision.
(3) If the decision is made that police will be present at an organised rally, what is the policy for (a) advising the rally organisers of this decision and (b) deciding how many police officers will be present for the rally.
(4) What is the policy for police intervention in dealing with disorderly, anti-social, threatening and/or violent individuals, once the decision has been made to have a police presence at an organised rally.
(5) Are there any known cases in which police have acted in contravention of these policies within the past 12 months.
(6) What rally topics have police identified as typically requiring a greater police presence.
Mr Gentleman: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) Where notification of a rally is received, ACT Policing assesses a range of factors including, intelligence holdings, Law Enforcement and other partner information, risk and threat assessments, the number of people likely to attend, and the location of the event. Consideration is also given to the possibility of disruption to other members of the public. Contact may be made with the rally organiser to enable further consideration of any possible issues.
In accordance with information available on the Access Canberra website, it is recommended that people planning a rally on ACT Government land submit an application to use a public place well in advance of the event. The National Capital Authority should also be consulted in regards to events on Commonwealth Land, by way of example, any location within the “Parliamentary Triangle”.
(2) (a) Depending on the length of notice received and other operational activities occurring at the time, ACT Policing endeavours to engage with rally organisers but does not typically disclose how or where policing resources are being deployed across the ACT. Where there has been no, or limited, warning of the rally, ACT Policing will monitor the event with available resources.
(b) If a dispute regarding police attendance cannot be resolved by the police officer involved, the dispute can be progressed to the officer’s supervisor in order to resolve the dispute at the time of the relevant operational activity. If rally organisers are not
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