CT takes a bat to the police

By putting it out to tender will only cost the Government money they don’t have. NSW Police and Vic Police have already said they don’t want ACT. Maybe it would be interesting seeing how many ACT Police officers would want to transfer into a ACT Police Service. Sure there will be some, but the AFP has a hard enough time getting people to ome and stay in the ACT just like every other job. I think a lot more needs to be done to the ACT in general before a ACT Police can be run purely for the ACT.

All Jack has done is tapped into a level of community disquiet over the variability in AFP servicing. Personally, I have seen them do some good stuff and seen some shockers. On balance, I reckon their performance is not up to scratch.

Would enjoy seeing the Government putting it out to tender and seeing what bids came in. That would also allow for the negotiation of a proper servicing agreement rather than the current set of motherhood statements.

Of course, I will shortly be told I have no idea by someone with a bad attitude.

Maybe it’s Jack Waterford that needs to be brought back in line. It seems that he can write anything he likes in his column. Maybe that’s a result of him winning the citizen of the year award!

Jack is bitter at ACT Police because once upon a time he was able to sit with senior management and get whatever story he wanted. Now we have privacy laws etc which prevent this.

On another note which no one has raised, What about the poor 16 year old that was sexually assaulted? Surely whether they name her or not it is going to place a huge amount of stress on her. Being sexually assaulted is hard to deal with as it is, without it painted over the media scene. I think it’s a bit rude of Waterford have his whinge over the Police failing to report this matter to the media. All I have to say is that it’s a need to know basis and all of ACT does not need to know about that.

The ACT media love a good story about Police, love to bag them and love it when they loose a court case, but do they ever report the good doing of Police? No. I think people generally don’t care what is reported. I think its Jack who does!

From my reading the issue Jack Waterford has is not so much with Police, but with the Media unit and senior management. All dealings I have had have be fair and on par with the 4 other states I have lived. So lets remember to be fair to the Constables on the ground. I’m sure they would all be happy with more Police numbers.

As for the Qbyn issue, (and this is second hand info – so correct me if wrong) most Qbyn Police are sworn as AFP Special Constables, and many ACT are sworn as NSW Special Constables. This makes sense with the border so close. I am told that Qbyn dont responded to Gunghalin but on rare occasions go to Oakes estate, due to the proximity of Oaks to Qbyn.

NSW based in Q responding to Gungahlin call-outs…so says the source.

Al, do you mean that NSW police are responding, or federal police based in NSW?

whatsisname = Paul Kelly, by the way.

Bonfire I think the point being made is that ANY corruption of any scale, if tolerated or papered over, inevitably leads to an atmosphere of acceptance. And that can only put a force on a slippery slope the likes of what we saw under Joh and Rusty Hinge in Qld. With apologies to whatsisname, “From little things, big things grow…”

On matters ACT Police, a few weeks ago one person here made the claim that Gungahlin Station is not full-time, a claim that was strongly rebutted by one of our AFP contributors. Last night an off-duty person in blue told me exactly the same thing, that Belconnen Station has to cover Gungahlin at night, that occasionally teams from Queanbeyan have to come over to answer calls (yes from NSW!), that for a similar population, Qbyn has substantially more police on the ground, that when bad people get caught in Qbyn they say they only ever get caught in Qbyn – never have to worry about getting caught in ACT. Now I’ll qualify this by also saying that a woman who overhead the conversation said she had a home breakin that was solved in just 2 days (good) but that she has had more break-ins in a few years here than a life-time in South Africa (not so good).

Now I don’t our AFP folk to dump a truckful of bricks on me for raising concerns about something that seems if true to be more a sympton of wider resourcing than personal diligence. But I would be interested in hearing if there is any substance behind these fairly concerning statements from a source I have no reason to doubt.

It doesn’t mean they can’t do better, bonfire. And to compare Australia to those other countries is a bit of a long bow to draw.

We saw what happened when the community was not informed properly prior to the 18 January 2003 bushfires. It is entirely probable, as Jack Waterford says, that further crimes could have been prevented if the community had been warned promptly about previous sex attacks.

if anyone thinks that any oz police force is ‘corrupt’ i suggest they take themselves out of their little bubble and hop a plane to most of our se asian neighbours, africa, sth america or eastern europe.

apart from using eastman as a patsy, and unfairly defecting my stanley steamer, i think the afp do a great job.

Naturally, I agree with Jack Waterford’s comments.

I am also concerned with “the disconnect between the community” and the apparent culture of contempt towards those who question some of their attitudes (as we have seen with the amber light affair).

my advice.

dont take part in afp media stunts.

just stop reporting them – only report ‘news’.