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URL: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/s155820.htm

Broadcast: 25/7/2000
Private Eyes
When the Australian Police Federation meets tomorrow the issue of private police forces will be high on the agenda. The federation is opposed to these private security officers taking on basic police duties, as they seem to be doing in some parts of the country. But the private security industry has found an unlikely ally in the recently retired WA police commissioner Bob Falconer.

Compere: Tony Jones
Reporter: Philippa McDonald

TONY JONES: When the Australian Police Federation meets tomorrow the issue of private police forces will be high on the agenda.



Mr Falconer argues that the police must accept they can't do it alone, and that no government can really afford an omnipresent army of police on the beat.

We'll speak to him in a moment.

But first, are security forces an adequate alternative?

Philippa McDonald looks at the growing army of private police.

MICHAEL MINTON, COMMUNITY FIRST SECURITY: The facts are that as crime increases and the limits of the police get stretched, it's probably not a bad idea at all to have a very professional, highly qualified company to come in and help relieve the pressure on the police.

PETER ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT, POLICE FEDERATION: I don't believe that the community should be in any way hoodwinked by perceptions that appear to indicate a police presence or a law enforcement presence when that's not the case.

PHILIPPA McDONALD: The Institute of Criminology estimates there are two private security guards to every one police officer in Australia.

MICHAEL MINTON: We do have the right to actually apprehend and detain offenders and we can turn those people over to the police.

PHILIPPA McDONALD: Michael Minton used to work for US government intelligence.

Now he's in private policing, providing 24 hour a day, seven days a week patrols in suburban Brisbane.

In the last three years, his men have arrested up to 25 alleged offenders and Minton even takes some credit for a small fall in property crime rates.

MICHAEL MINTON: We're definitely a deterrent in the area for people coming in that want to do crime here, but I'd like to really think that we've helped bring that statistic down 2 per cent in the last couple of years.

PETER ALEXANDER: They are business-orientated people.

They are in the business of making money.

They don't provide a community service as policing does.

So I think it's very important that we don't get carried away and we're not comparing like with like.

PHILIPPA McDONALD: Private policing is largely self-regulatory, with licensing requirements varying State to State and no watchdog to monitor behaviour or investigate complaints.

The Institute of Criminology's Tim Prenzler has been researching the relationship between police and private security.

TIM PRENZLER, AUST. INST. OF CRIMINOLOGY: The dark side is that you don't get the same level of professionalism as you might expect with police.

Security guard training is much shorter than police training.

For example, on average around Australia it's only one week.

PHILIPPA McDONALD: But despite that, the institute's research points to a future where the differences between public and private police is increasingly blurred.

TIM PRENZLER: We've seen an increase in the number of private security operators taking over police work in, for example, control of sporting events, patrols in city malls, security in city malls, that kind of thing.

PHILIPPA McDONALD: When Bob Falconer was WA's Police Commissioner, he pioneered partnerships between police and security guards in council areas.

Now he's pushing for a full-scale expansion of those partnerships, arguing it will free police up to tackle serious crime.

Philippa McDonald, Lateline.

TONY JONES: I'm joined now by Bob Falconer, a retired police commissioner for WA with 36 years policing experience.

Bob Falconer, you've said that the regular police have clung to the notion that they've got total responsibility for the prevention and detection of crime, but why shouldn't they?

BOB FALCONER, POLICE COMMISSIONER, WA, 1994-99: Tony, I think because it's quite simple, that throughout this nation our police agencies are overworked, they're overloaded.

The demand for their services is increasing and the real truth is that down at the lower levels of their prioritised call system, there are many calls they cannot handle.

TONY JONES: Doesn't that mean, though, we just need more police?

Isn't this why people pay their taxes, they expect a public service like this?

BOB FALCONER: We can't afford it.

I don't believe any government of any political persuasion can afford some veritable army of omnipresent police.

Tony, what's important is the private security industry already outnumber the public police two to one.

In some places in the US it's five to one.

We can either see this as a threat or an opportunity.

I see it as an opportunity.

TONY JONES: Well, a lot of people see it as a threat.

Private police, some of them have little more than a week's training, they're often poorly educated and they're armed.

Now, why on earth would you want armed men with those sorts of qualifications running around, more of them at least?

BOB FALCONER: Tony, some would argue that arming people and their qualifications are two unrelated issues.

But can I just pick up on some of the points that were made before in the commentary.

The security industry -- I've said this to them -- they need to lift their game.

They need better quality people, better training.

They do need complaint mechanisms, I believe a security industry ombudsman.

There's a whole range of things they need to do as well.

I'm not just saying pick them up holus-bolus as they are and engage them in all sorts of other activities, but we need to partner up with them.

We, or as I was, we the public police, need to form partnerships with them and have some influence on them.

TONY JONES: But what sorts of duties would you expect these private police to do and where would you actually draw the line?

BOB FALCONER: Tony, in WA, which you've already referred to, those municipally-based patrols -- which I'm very much in favour of because then they're not economically based; every citizen in that municipality gets the service -- they're attending to vandalism, they're attending to graffiti calls, they're attending to things that are a great concern to the community but they are simply well down the priority order of the public police.

And they can effectively do that; there is no doubt about it.

TONY JONES: Are you suggesting, though, that we do something about the way that these private police forces are trained?


TONY JONES: I mean, there must be some way of making sure that they have some sort of adequate training if you're going to go down that path because clearly they don't at the moment, do they?

BOB FALCONER: Tony, they may not have the same training as police, but I would argue that they don't have to.

One of the reasons our police are very expensive is because of the amount of initial and ongoing training, their equipment, et cetera.

Now, they don't need all of that to do some of the work that the security industry can backfill for and work in partnership with us.

TONY JONES: Very briefly, we mentioned earlier you spent 36 years, I think it is, as a serving police officer.

How do you rate your chances of getting support from your colleagues in the police force for this?

BOB FALCONER: Well, can I say -- I saw Peter Fitzgerald before -- it's anathema to police unions.

They figure that more security equals less police.

I'm not saying less police.

I'm simply saying let's tap into an existing resource, influence it in its professionalism and work in partnership.

TONY JONES: Alright, Bob Falconer, thanks for joining us tonight.

BOB FALCONER: Thank you.

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