Whose responsibility?

Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes recently ran a story by Michael Usher entitled, ‘Brute Force’, which followed the activities of Sydney’s Public Order and Riot Squad.

During the report one of the only female members of the squad was filmed pushing a man onto the street, threatening to “flog” him, and then demanding him back onto the footpath. The story closed with another police officer pushing a man to the ground for failing to follow an order to “move on”.

But Dr Michael Kennedy believes that this behaviour is simply counterproductive.

As a former detective and now a professor of social sciences at UWS, Dr Kennedy says this very high-visibility, zero-tolerance policing at this magnitude is not the way to solve Sydney’s problem with alcohol and violence.

Dr Kennedy believes that an old-school style of “beat” policing is a better solution than the quick response unit that is being applied now.

“They come in like raiders, but don’t stick around to clean up the mess they make.”

Although it does make good television, what Dr Kennedy describes as the “Hollywood Cops” are receiving as many complaints from their colleagues as they are from the public they’ve lawfully assaulted because they aren’t performing their duties. To an objective observer it might appear that the Riot Squad is taking their name too literally.

“Arresting people and not following through with charges is not the way policing should go,” Dr Kennedy said. “The Riot Squad has no respect for the regular police either,” he said, adding that even members of Sydney’s regular police force have raised complaints about the PORS.

But the regular police are not above reproach either.

Last month the SSH reported on an incident involving a young lawyer who had come into contact with Newtown Police. The man was arrested and charged for interfering with police proceedings. Though the charges were dismissed in court, the incident has brought further illumination to the heavy-handed tactics that are becoming more readily applied - even by police on the beat - and more acceptable to the public at large.

The 60 Minutes discussion board was brimming with admiration for the PORS, but the comments are not coming from the people that are most affected by these tactics.

On New Year’s Eve 2008, Redfern also bore witness to the tactics of the PORS as they monitored a party at the Block. One witness described their actions to be similar to storm troopers acting at the behest of a totalitarian government. The following day media reports of the mass deployment of police was whittled down to a minor altercation between two people.

The SSH contacted Redfern Police Commander, Luke Fruedenstein, but he refused to comment on the actions of the PORS because they are not under his command.

The question of whether the use of zero-tolerance policing will yield results will not be answered for some time.

Dr Kennedy maintains that solution to society’s alcoholic ills is to be found in the same method that was applied to smoking over two decades ago. He believes that as Australia’s love of drinking disseminates through all aspects of society, simply attacking the flash points on the street is not going to foster any more respect within society, or for the police.

“It’s not the job of the police to arrest society out of its problems,” Dr Kennedy said.

Source: South Sydney Herald June 2009 www.southsydneyherald.com.au