ACT Policing is keeping a close eye on an increase in bikie gang members in the Territory. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Preventing a repeat of the violence associated with the presence of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCG) will be a major focus for ACT Policing in 2024.
Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan sat down with Region to give a recap of the year and explained the presence of four different gangs in the Territory was cause for concern.
“We’re not exactly sure what that means long term, but historically when we’ve had even two gangs, we’ve seen violence,” he said.
Five years ago the Finks, Comancheros, Rebels and Nomads enacted a turf war in the ACT, which was accompanied by an increase in drive-by shootings and arson attacks.
“That was when we had two outlaw motorcycle gangs who were flexing their muscles and trying to overtake the turf. We’ve got four … they’re flexing their muscles but they’re not trying to take the turf yet,” CPO Gaughan said.
He explained the ACT was attractive to organised criminal syndicates because of its proximity to Sydney and Melbourne, as well as its different OMCG and drug laws.
“We don’t have any [anti] association laws, we don’t have any laws in relation to stopping bikies from wearing their colours, we don’t have firearm prohibition orders.
“We’re the only jurisdiction that doesn’t have [at least] one of those, and most have all three.”
While the ACT does have post-imprisonment anti-association laws, CPO Gaughan said they didn’t impact on people coming from interstate as they weren’t sentenced in Canberra.
Another major focus for next year, as it was for 2023, is domestic and family violence (DFV).
ACT Policing’s annual report showed an increase in family violence, and recent murders, which potentially have a DFV aspect, are a “worrying trend”.
“It also makes us more in line with the rest of Australia where we’re seeing, unfortunately, too many women dying at the hands of male perpetrators,” CPO Gaughan said.
“This is one of the challenges with family violence … is it can go from zero to 100, no [reported] issue to murder.
“We’re not immune from that.”
CPO Gaughan felt while policing’s response to the issue was good, law enforcement only deals with the “sharp end” of DFV. He wants to see more preventative measures brought in to stop this alarming trend.
“We’ve got to get into schools and educate young men about how to appropriately communicate with women, we’ve got to get on social media … it’s not just an issue for us,” he said.
However he’s been buoyed by recent sentences handed down for DFV perpetrators, including a man who received 27 years’ imprisonment for stabbing his partner multiple times and setting her on fire.
“I think [the chief justice] was sending a clear message to the community, including her own judges, about what her expectations are for that type of crime.”
ACT Policing Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan wants family violence issues to continue to receive more attention in 2024. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
The past year has also seen an increase in sexual assault reports, despite the concerns raised from the Board of Inquiry into the ACT’s criminal justice system.
CPO Gaughan said he felt this was because the report generally showed officers were professional with these matters.
“I think the tide is turning a bit in relation to trust being brought back into the system,” he said.
“There’s also been some fairly good outcomes in the court process, some pretty hefty sentences – some weaker ones too, I might add – but I think the data says the community is trusting us.”
New laws began this year, including further drug decriminalisation and raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
CPO Gaughan said there have been some teething issues with enacting the new minimum age.
“These types of incidents rarely happen Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, and it’s just [been] a change of mindset with the other agencies to know they’re now a 24/7 responder [as well],” he said.
“We legally can’t hold the kids, as we don’t have any powers, so they’ve got to be in a position where they can respond immediately and also then put that kid somewhere that they’re not going to hurt themselves or the rest of the community.
“The resources are there, it’s just a matter of pointing them in the right direction at the right time.”
A low point was the revelation a police officer appeared to have lied in relation to the case against NRL stars Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton.
CPO Gaughan said that issue needed to work its way through a review and a professional standards assessment.
High points of the year included rolling out mobile drug testing capabilities for all officers and arrests in the Irma Palasics case.
“I was briefed on that [case] not long after I started with the ACTP and the tenacity of the investigators involved, it’s a very complicated strategy they put around [the investigation] which will come out in the court process,” CPO Gaughan said.
“But it’s incredible foresight, thinking, and great detective work.”
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