Victoria Police must keep public in loop on crime: Justin Quill
NEWS that a flasher of young girls has been active in Melbourne’s south for a month is information police should have armed parents with straight away, writes Justin Quill.
Opinion
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THERE’S a flasher on the loose in Bonbeach. It’s obviously a concerning situation because the flasher exposed himself to two 12-year-old girls and two 11-year-old girls.
And today’s flasher is tomorrow’s rapist.
But police are on the hunt for him. So we can all rest soundly. Or can we?
Victoria Police released a statement about the Bonbeach flasher this week. With this “middle-aged” man who has a “solid build” on the loose it seems appropriate that the Moorabbin Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team is on the case. And enlisting the public’s assistance.
But here’s the problem. The police told the public — via the media — about the Bonbeach flasher almost a month after the incident. The flasher did his dirty deed on November 26 but we weren’t told about it until December 21.
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There are two major issues with that. The first is that it seems almost certain the public will be less likely to be able to help now than it would have been the day after the event.
I can tell you what I did yesterday, but I wouldn’t have a clue what I did on a particular day a month ago.
The other issue is that for a month parents around Bonbeach probably allowed their children to go for walks unaccompanied without fully knowing the risks. I’m praying that this creep hasn’t flashed — or worse — to any other children in the past month. But it’s possible.
And even if it hasn’t happened, I don’t think it’s right that parents should be forced to make decisions about their children without all the facts.
On the one hand, you might say that the police must surely know best to solve the crime. I have no expertise, qualifications or experience in policing. But it seems absolutely obvious that if the public are going to be used to help solve this crime, then the sooner they are told, the greater the assistance to police.
And I don’t understand the downside. I can’t understand why the police wouldn’t tell the public. Sure, they might have thought it could be solved without public assistance — but what’s the downside in telling people?
And there’s enormous upside of making the public aware, therefore more vigilant and, as a result, safer.
That’s my main issue. The fact that Victoria Police didn’t think it necessary to arm parents with this information is wrong. It appears the police adopted an approach based solely on the aim of solving the crime. Obviously that’s important. But it’s not the only thing.
Public confidence is so important. If the public isn’t confident that it is safe, then Victoria Police (along with the government and our judicial system) has failed.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of Victoria Police. It does a very tough job and does it very well. But if people feel like police are hiding things from them, they will feel less confident.
This seems an example of Victoria Police adopting the attitude that “we know better” than the public. I see it all the time in courts where judges, lawyers and police seem to have a view that they’re smarter and better at assessing situations than the public.
Essentially, this approach from the police takes away the public’s right to know — to be fully informed and therefore fully forewarned. For a month we have gone about our lives without knowing that there was a real risk out there.
Imagine if a child was assaulted or raped by this creep. The public would — rightly — be appalled that this man was out there. There would be parents demanding answers and lawyers looking to sue Victoria Police.
It seems that hasn’t happened — thank goodness — but I worry about all the other risks out there that police have decided we don’t need to know about. There must be many other cases of creeps who police feel it’s not our place to know about. And I worry if there have been rapes, murders or burglaries as a result of the public not knowing about a particular risk.
We’ll never know, of course. But I’d like suggest a novel approach to Victoria Police — and all our government departments and courts: treat the public with more respect.
Keep the public informed and let people do what they see as appropriate with the information. Don’t shelter the public because you think it is better off not knowing relevant facts. Try transparency. Avoid secrecy.
Why don’t we try that in 2017 and see if we’re better off by the end of the year compared with where we sit today.
Oh, and if anyone knows anything about this creep at Bonbeach — get on the phone to Crime Stoppers and make sure he isn’t today’s flasher and tomorrow’s rapist.
Justin Quill is a media lawyer with Macpherson Kelley Lawyers, which acts for the Herald Sun
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