Police face unprecedented challenges — commissioners

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 10

Police face unprecedented challenges — commissioners

NZPA Canberra Australian police commissioners meeting in Canberra have emphasised that the police must have adequate powers to combat the growing threat of serious crime. They believe they now have more evident community support for increased police powers. This theme dominated the 1982 week-long conference of commissioners of police of Australia, New Zealand and the South-west Pacific region.

A communique said that plans were developed to meet the “significant and far-reaching changes” in the criminal law and justice systems'

“We agreed that never before had police forces faced such challenges, particularly changing patterns of crime, new. legislation, and technology.”

It said conference business was devoted to developing avenues of co-operation, strategies, and techniques to

meet fully the community’s expectations of the highest levels of protection and effective law enforcement

There was a recurring theme on the need for the police to have and to retain adequate powers, it said. Also, the commissioners believed that community support for increased police powers to detect and prosecute serious crime was more evident throughout Australia and the South-west Pacific than before. The commissioners also decided to set up a working party to develop strategies aimed at combating the inroads of white-collar crime. It would also examine the need for appropriate legislation to deal with computer related crime, and the resources necessary to properly equip Australia’s police officers to meet this emerging area of crime.

Among other decisions were those to:

® Explore extending the role of the Australian police liai-

son officer in New Zealand because of the success already achieved in monitoring the movement of criminals across the Tasman

® Set up a central index of armed hold-up data

® Develop a national fraud index.

The communique said that other items discussed in-

eluded the development of a national drug data base: specialised training to deal with arson, fraud, and search and rescue techniques; interchange of officers between forces; and the request of the Australian Police Ministers’ Council for a report on a national traffic-enforcement campaign to combat the, alarming road toll.