Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Cahill: Police Association President on the charges laid against gang members after the new laws were launched

Transcript

Chris Cahill: Police Association President on the charges laid against gang members after the new laws were launched · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the gang patch ban appears to be going well.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: This is according to police figures. It's only been what
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: has it been three months since the band came into place,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and since then police have laid just over three thousand charges.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: They've seized over seventy it was about seventy firearms, and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: they've seized a total of seventy six patches. So Chris
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Carhill is the president of the Police Association, He's got
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: up early for us. Good morning, dear Chris, Good morning Andrew.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Ten thousand patch gang members in this country, seventy six
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: patches confiscated. Did we only catch the stupid ones?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Well, no, it's actually that the gangs complied with the
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: law a lot better than probably anyone anticipated. Really. I
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: think they realized very quickly that if they wear their patch,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: they're going to lose it permanently, and if they police
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: don't act immediately, because they might be safe too many
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: gang members, et cetera. Police will turn up with a
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: search forum the next morning, and that's where they've been
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: getting the good results with all the firearms, et cetera.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: So compliance has been really good.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Do we underestimate the gang's intelligence and organization?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I think we have to be careful that just because
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: we're not seen in the public with their patches, they're
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: not still continuing to commit their crime. And that's sort
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: of a separate issue for police that they've got to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: continue their large scale organized crime investigations. But from a
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: public perspective, you're not seeing these gang members patched up
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: in the street, and that's a good thing.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Ye, that's a good vibe. But we're here to fight crime.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Is this fighting crime enough?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a different way of doing it.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's important that you're feeling safe
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: is sometimes just as important as has been safe. And
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: when the public are out there, they're at the cafes
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that are in the main street and they're not seeing
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the groups of patched members. That makes them feel safer.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: But certainly police still have to keep up those operations.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: In the fact they've laid three thousand charges for different
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: types of offenses says that they're still doing that.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Of course, I ended up behind a gang convoy the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: other day on Straight Higway too, and there were no patches,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: that's for sure, But there were a lot of white
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: T shirts that were a lot of black leather jerkins
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: who was obviously the Harley Davidson's and they all seem
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to have a bandanna and one or the other of
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: their pockets. So they've just moved on to a different
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: way of signifying their presence, haven't they.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: To a degree though, I think if you talk to
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the public and police here that saying it feels safer
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: not seeing the big patches where they use them to intimidate,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: it is making a difference. I think the long term
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: will will it actually reduce gang numbers? I think that's
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: something that's going to take a while to understand.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. My final question is how long will this
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: remain effective? Because we only got seventy six out of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: ten thousand, and so, as I said at the beginning,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: they were the stupid ones. The smart ones are going
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to get away from the patch, and as we saw
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: on the Tellyla, people are going to say there was
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a gang member there, who say, well, you're going to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: see a whole lot more facial tattoos. So the question
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: is how long will the gang pat rules remain effective
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in shaking the tree to find the other crimes?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Well, that is you know, time will be the one
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: that clearly tells that I think, but you know the fact,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: there's been three thousand charges, so it says it's been
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: pretty effective at the moment in keeping the setting that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: control over the gangs. Everything will adapt and police will
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: have to adapt as well. But I still think I'd
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: rather see streets without those gang patches on them than
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: what we had oh prior to that. Oh.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, don't get me wrong. I'm behind the gang patch.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: It has been great. It has given a bit of
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: vibe around the place. I thank you for your comments.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Chris Carhill for the Police Association President. For more from
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio.