29th March 2019
We recently published an article about comments attributed to Deputy Commissioner Patten and drew from that and other information that Victoria is likely to have to continue to tolerate living with a Lock-Em-Up policing strategy from the Nixon Dark Ages, for decades to come if the next Victorian Chief Commissioner is recruited from the existing Command.
Something we sincerely hoped was possible.
As Aristotle once quipped “One swallow, does not a summer make, nor one fine day”. Very true but at least one glimmer can give us hope that things are going to improve.
The swallow in this story is Assistant Commissioner Glen Weir who in an extensive interview in the Herald Sun about the drug problem was reported as saying,
“Victoria’s top drug cop has likened drug dealers to terrorists, saying they pose one of the biggest threats to community safety.
He said primary school students needed to be taught early about illicit drug use, quashing the phrase “recreational drug use” at an early age.”
This is the first significant indication in recent time of any member of the Victoria Police top brass acknowledging that early intervention is so important.
This strategy is coincidentally one of the ‘Key Platforms’ of the Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA).
There were some other indications in this report that would suggest at least Assistant Commissioner Weir, gets it. He gets the balance between Reactive or detection and arrests and Proactive policing; the ability to stop crime before it happens; Crime Prevention.
Where we may be wrong, is in our assumption that all of Command support the current reactive policing strategies.
Let us sincerely hope we are wrong, and there are more of Command than just Assistant Commissioner Weir who share this enlightened view.