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The new mobile responder app introduced on police mobile phones and devices during the 2019-2020 financial year cut around 1.53 million routine radio transmissions to the operations call centre in Belconnen. The reduction in radio traffic left the channels “clear for more urgent incidents”, ACT police claimed. It’s a dramatic shift for the operations centre which for decades has been organising and coordinating police resources, taking Crime Stoppers calls and reports of suspicious activity, advising officers of who and what they may find when they attend a certain address, and keeping track of where officers and cars are in Canberra through the day and night. But now much of that information once carried on the encrypted radio waves now goes to direct to officer devices, although how much is read and understood by police in the heat of a fast-changing operational environment is difficult to assess and not yet analysed. However, having inbuilt GPS connectivity on the device does have its advantages as police detailed in a case study in which an officer, working alone, was following a motorcyclist into a remote location in the ACT. The rider fell off his motorcycle and when the officer arrived at the scene, the person was recognised to be “a known violent and dangerous offender under the influence of illicit substances”. The officer couldn’t tell operations where he was, but his device’s GPS location was pinpointed and extra patrols were sent to assist. With the police 2019-2020 financial reporting year split between a lengthy period not affected by COVID-19 and around 25 per cent of reporting during lockdown with most people working from home, the dramatic fall in most crime types over the pandemic period this year wasn’t fully reflected in the data presented. For instance, the 2019-20 report revealed total offences reported against a person at 3477 for the financial year, slightly above the 2015-2016 reports of 3304. However, the reporting period hides the full extent of the decline. The 2020 calendar year, compared with 2019, is expected to show a fall of as much as 25 per cent when the comparative data is finally released in early January due to nearly nine months of 2020 being under some form of COVID restrictions. People in Canberra continue to be more concerned about becoming victims of fraud, credit card or internet crime more than they are about having their house burgled or their car stolen, the police report revealed. Where the ACT differed in people’s perceptions of crime compared with to the rest of Australia is that elsewhere, people are more concerned about being victims of physical assault in a public place, and much more about becoming victims of a terrorist incident. READ MORE: General feelings of public safety in the ACT were higher than the national average and property offences are continuing to trend downward. A troubling statistic for ACT police is the slow decline in clear-up rates for personal offences such as assault and sex offences. These are those offences reported but the offender either not identified, the complaint withdrawn, or the offence not substantiated. Clearance rates have been falling steadily over the past four years and in the 2019-20 reporting year fell below 50 per cent. The report data revealed ACT police were over-achieving in their response time to the most urgent priority tasks, such as life-threatening emergencies, but failed to hit the target of attending in less than 20 minutes to less urgent priority two tasks.
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The new mobile responder app introduced on police mobile phones and devices during the 2019-2020 financial year cut around 1.53 million routine radio transmissions to the operations call centre in Belconnen.
The reduction in radio traffic left the channels “clear for more urgent incidents”, ACT police claimed.
It’s a dramatic shift for the operations centre which for decades has been organising and coordinating police resources, taking Crime Stoppers calls and reports of suspicious activity, advising officers of who and what they may find when they attend a certain address, and keeping track of where officers and cars are in Canberra through the day and night.
But now much of that information once carried on the encrypted radio waves now goes to direct to officer devices, although how much is read and understood by police in the heat of a fast-changing operational environment is difficult to assess and not yet analysed.
Police on patrol in Canberra city. Picture: Karleen Minney
However, having inbuilt GPS connectivity on the device does have its advantages as police detailed in a case study in which an officer, working alone, was following a motorcyclist into a remote location in the ACT.
The rider fell off his motorcycle and when the officer arrived at the scene, the person was recognised to be “a known violent and dangerous offender under the influence of illicit substances”.
The officer couldn’t tell operations where he was, but his device’s GPS location was pinpointed and extra patrols were sent to assist.
With the police 2019-2020 financial reporting year split between a lengthy period not affected by COVID-19 and around 25 per cent of reporting during lockdown with most people working from home, the dramatic fall in most crime types over the pandemic period this year wasn’t fully reflected in the data presented.
For instance, the 2019-20 report revealed total offences reported against a person at 3477 for the financial year, slightly above the 2015-2016 reports of 3304.
ACT Policing officers on patrol in Canberra city and the Canberra centre, encouraging people to follow COVID-19 directions. Picture: Karleen Minney.
However, the reporting period hides the full extent of the decline. The 2020 calendar year, compared with 2019, is expected to show a fall of as much as 25 per cent when the comparative data is finally released in early January due to nearly nine months of 2020 being under some form of COVID restrictions.
People in Canberra continue to be more concerned about becoming victims of fraud, credit card or internet crime more than they are about having their house burgled or their car stolen, the police report revealed.
Where the ACT differed in people’s perceptions of crime compared with to the rest of Australia is that elsewhere, people are more concerned about being victims of physical assault in a public place, and much more about becoming victims of a terrorist incident.
General feelings of public safety in the ACT were higher than the national average and property offences are continuing to trend downward.
A troubling statistic for ACT police is the slow decline in clear-up rates for personal offences such as assault and sex offences. These are those offences reported but the offender either not identified, the complaint withdrawn, or the offence not substantiated.
Clearance rates have been falling steadily over the past four years and in the 2019-20 reporting year fell below 50 per cent.
The report data revealed ACT police were over-achieving in their response time to the most urgent priority tasks, such as life-threatening emergencies, but failed to hit the target of attending in less than 20 minutes to less urgent priority two tasks.
