State of Disorder: police tech upgrade ‘years too late to contain gangs’

A federal Liberal MP says Victoria Police’s investment in hi-tech crowd control weapons is too late to stave off a gang crisis.

Victoria Police public order squad officers armed with their new non-lethal weapons. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A Victorian federal Liberal MP says Victoria Police’s blockbuster investment in hi-tech, non-lethal crowd control weapons has come too late and should have been ­implemented two years ago to stave off a gang crisis.

Police from today will be able to tame unruly crowds and rioters with non-lethal PepperBall guns, 40mm launchers firing squash-ball-like rounds, as well as capsicum gas canisters and stinger grenades designed to disperse crowds.

The announcement, which came just four days after a ­frightening gang brawl and car ­attack rocked Collingwood in inner Melbourne, represents ­Victoria Police’s latest step in ­taming youth gang violence and a wave of increasingly violent ­disruptions.

But Jason Wood, whose electorate of La Trobe takes in some Sudanese crime hotspots, and who chaired the parliamentary committee into migrant outcomes, said the state government should have acted years ago to stop the gang crisis escalating.

“When I called out the African gang problem two years ago, Labor MPs said I was scaremongering and Victorian Police said there were no gangs,” he said. “Things would have been ­different if they listened two years ago.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris O’Neill denied the decision to unveil the new arsenal was a knee-jerk reaction to the events at Collingwood, and rejected reports that some police involved felt they were underprepared to deal with the threat.

He also rejected suggestions the move was a “PR stunt” to placate community fears about the police and government response to a string of high-profile gang events across Melbourne over the past two years.

“Now’s the right time because we’ve been looking at this for a number of years,” Mr O’Neill said.

“We’ve had to get the equipment, we had to start training the people and we are now at that point (we can deploy).

“I think we’ve been quite open … we’re here to look after the community so it’s only fair that when we’ve got the equipment we let the community know this is what we’ve done, this is what we’ve put in place.”

Victoria Police has conceded that using some of the weapons may be confronting for the public to see.

Victoria Police testing new non-lethal weaponry.

African-Australian spokesman and community taskforce member Kenyatta Wal told The Australian the community was generally supportive of the investment.

“The police are out there to make our community safe and if you can have more police who are better equipped to manage any criminal activity for riots, then I think that’s a good one,” Mr Wal said.

“I don’t think police are out to hurt people and I’m sure they’ll be used in very isolated cases. But police are there to protect the community and keep the community safe.”

Mr O’Neill said the new tools and training program would enable Victoria Police’s public order squad to respond to large riots or disruptive crowds, even in situations where rioters were armed with weapons, bricks and rocks.

In time, 300 officers would be trained to use the weapons.

They include a semiautomatic PepperBall rifle and specialist armoured vehicles, which are designed to work alongside existing units including mounted police, the air wing and the dog squad.

The PepperBall rifle can fire three types of ammunition, including capsicum dust which works like mace, as well as gel balls which are likened to foam squash balls, and a type of paint ball which can mark its targets for easier identification in the investigation process.

The rifle can fire up to 150 rounds before it needs to be ­reloaded.

Officers within the squad will also be trained in coming weeks to use hand-held munitions which operate a lot like grenades but explode with a flash and smoke, and spill out pellets which hit offenders below the waist.