Domestic violence, organised crime fight pledge by new police chief
NEW police commissioner Grant Stevens aims to step up the fight against the rising scourge domestic violence and the growing problem of organised crime in SA.
INCOMING police commissioner Grant Stevens has flagged a further boost in resources to prevent and investigate domestic violence and maintain the fight against organised crime in South Australia.
Mr Stevens, who takes over from commissioner Gary Burns on Tuesday, signalled the fight against the deadly drug ice would be spearheaded through the targeting and dismantling of organised crime groups involved in the trade.
While he would not comment directly on the debate surrounding new organised crime legislation currently before parliament, he said that targeting crime groups — such as outlaw bikie gangs, who are the major players in the drug trade in SA — using effective legislation was a key part of the strategy.
“We have maintained a concerted focus on tackling organised crime for the past decade and I am not going to resile from that effort,’’ he said.
“The existing legislation enables us to target those who are planning to or are committing crime.
“We are looking for avenues to actually shut these groups down, to prevent crime rather than respond to reports of crime associated with outlaw motorcycle gangs.’’
Mr Stevens said SAPOL had already overhauled its response to domestic violence following the murder of Zahra Abrahimzadeh in 2010.
Last November, the Family and Domestic Violence Branch was created and 48 recommendations from an internal review of the Abrahimzadeh case and another 10 made by Coroner Mark Johns were also adopted.
Notwithstanding those moves, Mr Stevens said he expected SAPOL’s response would be further increased with a review of domestic violence resourcing and strategies now underway likely to identify further opportunities.
“With the opportunities for change that were identified in the Abrahimzadeh review we recognised there is a need to ensure we have the right people and the right numbers of those people focusing on family violence,’’ he said.
“That will certainly be part of my agenda going forward, to deliver that. I would expect we are going to put more resources into managing domestic violence to ensure we are catering to the needs as they are being identified.
“We recognise the dedicated police we have in that environment are doing an excellent job, but there is an opportunity to be more effective by putting additional specialist resources in.’’
Mr Stevens will now assume control of the review program being implemented within SAPOL. So far it has already resulted in the closure of a number of suburban shopfront police stations. There are plans to reduce the number of dedicated traffic police in the metropolitan area and redeploy them and also realign control of crime scene officers.
Those two initiatives have sparked concern from the Police Association, which has labelled the review a cost-cutting exercise.
Mr Stevens conceded the industrial unrest, but said the moves would proceed because “it is time for change’’.
“No one is hiding from the fact we have budget targets we have to meet, but the model we are currently working with has been around for 15 years,’’ he said.
“We have a lot of dedicated people putting in as much as we can, but we need to make sure the structure and technology enables them to be as effective as possible. That’s what this is about.’’
Police Minister Tony Piccolo said he was “looking forward to working with Grant Stevens and continuing the excellent work Gary Burns has started”.
“Mr Stevens will be an excellent leader of our police force,’’ he said.
“The fact that his appointment has been widely welcomed shows how highly regarded he is within SAPOL and the wider community.”