Ex-cop denies delay label

Investigations were not delayed, they were “prioritised,” one of the Territory’s former top officers said.

Former assistant commissioner Doug Smith said even the best resourced police force could not investigate all crime reported to it.

Mr Smith, who resigned in 2003, said it was a matter of balancing the resources allocated to police with the volume of crime.

“If you’ve only got resources to do 90 per cent of the work – what 10 per cent falls out?” Mr Smith asked.

“When a report of a crime is made you’ve got to assess the actual report to identify how you’re going to respond to it.

“If a person says their lawn shed has been broken into - do you as a community expect the same resources allocated to that as you would a murder?

“You look at what’s reported and you look at what resources you have available. You will not have all the resources to investigate all reported crimes to the same extent.

“Quite frankly the community, whose taxes pay for the police force, couldn’t afford it and probably wouldn’t want that.

“There’s got to be a process of assessment that enables the best response but also a response that’s affordable.”

Mr Smith said that during his five years as assistant commissioner of NT Police he knew of no major investigations – including the Falconio investigation – that were compromised because of a lack of resources.

“When O’Sullivan said that investigations were being delayed because of a lack of resources – the word delay was an unfortunate choice of words because it’s a projective term, it suggests a negative thing,” Mr Smith said.

“There were some ‘delays’ because there weren’t enough resources at the time and without a doubt there were cases that could have been solved if we had more resources.

“I don’t know of any specific cases. There was a generalisation that more resources would have meant that we could have got different outcomes.

“But no significant case was ever under-resourced.

“Falconio and those other cases were resourced at the levels required and at a level on par with any other jurisdiction.” Mr Smith said the Territory needed to have the same debate that other states have already gone through to set down what is an “appropriate response” by police.

“Very, very few people have many contacts with police in their lifetime. They might have cause to call on the police maybe three or four times,” he said.

“Their expectations are shaped by a host of factors.

“It’s a debate that’s got to be had – what does the community expect?”

Newshawk: Stuart Highway
Pubdate: 19th April 2004
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Edith Bevin
Copyright: 2004 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/