❓ Mr. Love questions the effectiveness of the Minister for Police's 'hard meth border' strategy, suggesting it's a PR stunt. The Minister defends the strategy, outlining how search areas provide police with intelligence and operational advantages, even without immediate arrests.
AnsweredQoN 840Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
METHAMPHETAMINE —
BORDER SEARCHES
840. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I have a supplementary question.
Will the minister admit that his so-called hard meth border is nothing more
than a PR stunt?
BORDER SEARCHES
840. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I have a supplementary question.
Will the minister admit that his so-called hard meth border is nothing more
than a PR stunt?
AnswerView source ↗
What I will say is that the creation
of the 22 search areas around all entry points—road, rail, sea and air—affords the police an additional tool to combat
organised criminals bringing illicit drugs into Western Australia. I have
spoken about this in this place before and given members a little
insight into police operations. I am not a police officer; I do not pretend to
have as deep a knowledge of police operational practices as the Commissioner of
Police, but I have told the house in the
past about the way operations work. Often, they will employ an operation in one
location to identify individuals or acquire intelligence that enables a consequence
or another action elsewhere. A search area
activated in Albany might identity somebody of interest. The police may exclude
others who are not necessarily worth pursuing or involved in an
operation and conduct an operation further on from that search area, utilising
the intelligence they acquired in the search area. It might be something in the
city with arrests made in the city. They may not want to draw to the attention
of organised criminals that their pathway of introducing illicit drugs into the state has been infiltrated or busted. They
may want to retain that intelligence from the subjects of their investigations .
Because an operation happened and an arrest was not made, does not mean that
the operation was not successful. I make
those observations, which I have made in this place before. To my knowledge,
the numbers claimed by the Leader of the Opposition are not correct. I do
not know what the report states, whichever report it is from the CCC. However,
I do know that a number of operations have employed the powers afforded to the
police under the Misuse of Drugs Act and they have been successful.
of the 22 search areas around all entry points—road, rail, sea and air—affords the police an additional tool to combat
organised criminals bringing illicit drugs into Western Australia. I have
spoken about this in this place before and given members a little
insight into police operations. I am not a police officer; I do not pretend to
have as deep a knowledge of police operational practices as the Commissioner of
Police, but I have told the house in the
past about the way operations work. Often, they will employ an operation in one
location to identify individuals or acquire intelligence that enables a consequence
or another action elsewhere. A search area
activated in Albany might identity somebody of interest. The police may exclude
others who are not necessarily worth pursuing or involved in an
operation and conduct an operation further on from that search area, utilising
the intelligence they acquired in the search area. It might be something in the
city with arrests made in the city. They may not want to draw to the attention
of organised criminals that their pathway of introducing illicit drugs into the state has been infiltrated or busted. They
may want to retain that intelligence from the subjects of their investigations .
Because an operation happened and an arrest was not made, does not mean that
the operation was not successful. I make
those observations, which I have made in this place before. To my knowledge,
the numbers claimed by the Leader of the Opposition are not correct. I do
not know what the report states, whichever report it is from the CCC. However,
I do know that a number of operations have employed the powers afforded to the
police under the Misuse of Drugs Act and they have been successful.
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