A WA parliamentary question regarding Operation Safe Place and its potential impact on antisocial behaviour in Bayswater. The Minister denies the operation simply displaces the problem.

AnsweredQoN 152Legislative Council
Asked
28 March 2012
Portfolio
Police

QuestionView source ↗

OPERATION SAFE
PLACE
152. Hon LINDA
SAVAGE to the minister representing the Minister for Police:
I refer to the government's Operation Safe Place that
moves on children from Perth CBD train stations to other areas.
(1) Is the
minister aware of the corresponding number of children congregating at Halliday
Park in Bayswater and the subsequent spike in antisocial behaviour including
drinking, fighting and breaking into nearby houses?
(2) What police resources will be
allocated to deal with these flow-on effects?
(3) Does the
minister concede that the problem of antisocial behaviour has simply been moved
from one place to another?

AnswerView source ↗

(1) Operation Safe Place did not move on children from Perth
CBD train stations to other areas.
(2) There is
no evidence to suggest any significant increase in the volume of crime within a
300 metre radius of Halliday Park during Operation Safe Place. Patrols of the
location are conducted on a regular basis due to its close proximity to the
Bayswater Police Station and the Bayswater railway station, which is always a
focus for policing activity due to the number of people utilising the transport
system and associated infrastructure.
(3) No. The
operational focus of Operation Safe Place is based in the linking of children
at risk to support services that they would not have otherwise accessed. The
aim is to move children at risk to a safe place, not to other areas. Children
at risk, due to age or relevant circumstances are conveyed either to a
responsible adult, or to the purpose-designed premises in Burton Street.
Children are not displaced to other areas where antisocial behaviour is allowed
to continue.

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