Byron cops becoming ‘punching bags’

Staff reporters

Byron residents are not the only ones suffering at the hands of young thugs who roam the town late at night it seems.

Troy Hamilton, the Byron Bay branch administrator of the NSW Police Association, says the town’s police are regularly assaulted in the line of their duty and believes the method of calculating the town’s policing needs is out of step with reality.

He said there had been a 56 per cent increase in police assaults and resisting arrest charges in the town since 2010. He added there had been a 90 per cent increase in drug detections in the last 12 months.

Mr Hamilton told ABC radio this morning that the union would be calling on the state government to deliver in part on its election promise of 24 additional police for the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command, ‘due to the increase in alcohol-related and drug related crime in Byron Bay and the fact that police are being used as punching bags every weekend’.

He believes the town urgently needs 10 additional permanent police officers and has written to local members Don Page and Geoff Provest to seek support for the move.

Don Page, who is also local government minister, said he was prepared to listen to the union’s concerns.

Mr Page told media he would also speak to his colleague, Tweed MP Geoff Provest, who is parliamentary secretary for police, and local area commander Superintendent Stuart Wilkins before raising the issue with police minister Michael Gallacher.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer has blamed the organisation that represents Byron Bay licensed venues for not doing its part in reducing alcohol related violence in the town.

Attack

In an unusual and scathing attack on the Byron Bay Liquor Accord, Tweed Byron crime manager, Acting Inspector Saul Wiseman, said he was ‘running out of patience’ with the accord’s failure to implement action that had been talked about for up to 18 months.

Inspector Wiseman told APN Media that ‘we’ve got to start seeing results, the police need to see some real action on delivery on the things we’ve been talking about. They’ve got to make some harder decisions’.

He said that despite all the talk, the level of alcohol related violence had remained relatively steady for five years.

He said he wanted to see venues implement a 1am venue lockout, being more consistent with the responsible service of alcohol, and to fund a private security patrol for midnight to 3am, when most of the violence occurs.

Inspector Wiseman said he also wanted the accord and council to move the violence hotspot at the Jonson Street taxi rank to another location or improve lighting and use a security guard there.

‘We’ve come to the table. I’ve done exactly what I’d said I’d do. It’s time now for them to take some real action,’ he told APN Media.

But the accord’s chairperson, Elke van Haandel rejected calls for a 1am lockout and for a private security firm to patrol the streets.

Mrs van Haandel, who owns one of the biggest liquor outlets in the town, the Beach Hotel, said she wanted to see police, not security, patrol the streets so offenders could ‘cop the full brunt of the law’.

Lockout

She claimed the earlier lockout ‘would cause additional problems’.

Mrs van Haandel said the accord already had a voluntary 2am lockout for all venues.

The town’s business chamber has blamed the NSW government of neglecting Byron Bay, which is one of the state’s most popular tourist attractions, by not funding security cameras (CCTV).

Byron United president Paul Waters, owner of the popular licensed The Balcony bar and restaurant, told News Ltd that CCTV cameras placed around the biggest crime hot spots in and around Jonson Street would help improve safety.

Last year, Byron Shire Council agreed to support a bid for funding from the state government for CCTV cameras but Mr Waters says nothing has come from that.

He said local government minister Mr Page had told the chamber that ‘once we got the council on board, funding would be there but it’s been seven months since we got council support and we haven’t seen anything happen. We are frustrated and disappointed’.

Mr Waters accused the government of being ‘incredibly rude’ by ‘neglecting the busiest tourist site outside of Sydney’.

He said traders had hoped the $300,000 CCTV system would be installed in time for the busy summer holiday season.

Critics of CCTV cameras say they do not improve safety or prevent violence, but can help police identify thieves and vandals and may act as a deterrence to vandalism.

Costly maintenance and ongoing monitoring of the public cameras is also an issue with ratepayers or police potentially having to fund them.

News Ltd reported that the NSW government would not fund the CCTV bid but Mr Page said he would lobby the federal government for it.

Meanwhile, Mr Provest has come under fire from the opposition for failing to live up to his pre-election promise of extra police for the Tweed-Byron command.

Richmond MP Justine Elliot and state Labor spokesperson for Tweed, Walt Secord, said Mr Provest should explain why the  local command did not get ‘a single police officer’ of the 304 new police officers who graduated last month.

‘This is extraordinary, Sydney’s east got 20 officers, Sydney’s north shore and beaches got 21, while the Tweed-Byron local area command got none’, Mrs Elliot said.

Mr Secord said that Mr Provest claimed as parliamentary secretary to the police minister that he would have open access to the O’Farrell Government but ‘we see otherwise’.

‘The police numbers today are the same as they were in 2009. The fact is that Geoff Provest has failed to deliver on his own 2009 promise to get 59 extra Police for Tweed. Geoff Provest is unwilling or unable to respond to Tweed crime issues,’ he said.