Police should stay out of early intervention: Nick Kaldas

Responsibility for intervening in the lives of troubled young Muslims should be taken away from police.

NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Responsibility for intervening in the lives of troubled young Muslims to prevent them becoming radicalised should be taken out of the hands of police and handed to civilian authorities.

The recommendation comes from one of the country’s top police officers, NSW Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas, less than a week after 15-year-old Farhad Jabar shot dead Curtis Cheng, a civilian employee of the NSW police service.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Kaldas, Australia’s most senior Arabic-speaking law enforcement official, called for an overhaul of the way the nation approaches deradicalisation.

He argued police were ill-equipped to intervene in the early stages of the radicalisation process, saying law enforcement officers would be shut out by families fearful their children would end up behind bars.

“The advice people would get (now) if they suspect their son is becoming radicalised is to ring the national security hotline,” Mr ­Kaldas said.

“That’s not going to work. They will think that will cause my son or daughter to be arrested (and) that’s not what I want.

“We have to find a non-law-­enforcement way of giving them help to get their son back on track.”

The Weekend Australian has learnt the NSW government has for some time been considering a non-police hotline to provide counselling for Muslim youths showing signs of radicalism. Mr Kaldas was asked if the case of Bali Nine drug courier Scott Rush could be a deterrent to people calling police.

Rush’s father contacted the Australian Federal Police through a family friend to tell them he was worried about his son. However, the AFP tipped off Indonesian police, who arrested Rush and his accomplices.

“As a father (the Scott Rush case) certainly played on my mind,” Mr Kaldas said.

“I think anyone who has kids would probably think about that at some point in time. But I guess what I’m getting at is that society and government have to find an ­alternative to the stick.

“We need a stick and I don’t for a minute resile from doing what we need to do, I don’t for a minute resile from making arrests and ­enforcing what we need to enforce — but certainly before people ­become radicalised, and much earlier in the piece, I’d suggest, we have to find alternative paths to send them down rather than just arrest for radicalisation.”

Mr Kaldas added: “Law ­enforcement officers — police by their very nature — have an obligation to report and act on anything that they see.

“It’s like somebody who may have a heroin addiction and has run off the rails. There are many ways parents can try to get them help, counselling, without locking them up. I think that’s what we need to do.”

The comments came as the ­Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Concetta Fierra­vanti-Wells, questioned the federal government’s reliance on security agencies to tackle terrorism. “We‘re not going to resolve this at the national security end of the spectrum,’’ she said.

“At the moment the (key performance indicator) is how many people we are picking up at the airport. Let’s address the causes of disengagement and disenfranchisement — that’s our only chance of getting these kids back on the rails.’’

She said Muslim families ­needed alternatives to police intervention.

“When you’re a mother and ­realise your son’s gone off the rails and will do something stupid and your only option is the national ­security hotline or the police, what are you going to do?’’ she said.

Additional reporting: Paul Maley