Gang laws toothless: police
There is nothing to stop criminal gangs who comply with orders to tear down fortifications from simply rebuilding them the next day, WA Police has told Parliament.
The complaint from WA Police Deputy Commissioner Chris Dawson came after it was summoned before the joint standing committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission to explain why it rarely accessed the CCC's extraordinary powers.
A committee report tabled in Parliament yesterday quoted Mr Dawson as saying WA Police had applied for only two fortification warning notices, in 2004 and 2011, because gangs were "by their very nature, quite litigious".
"They exercise all court avenues open to them," he said.
"There is nothing to prevent a party, once having complied with a fortification warning notice - if they have complied, it could simply be reconstructed the following day.
"Police would then have to make a fresh application again. So that, of itself, is very problematic."
The report traversed a history of lack of co-operation between the two agencies and came a day after Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan accused the CCC of failing to step up to the plate over prison corruption.
There have been no applications for extraordinary powers - including anti-fortification notices, assuming fake identities and compelling suspects to answer questions under threat of jail - this financial year or the previous two.
WA Police told the committee it was easier to apply for coercive hearings to the Federal Australian Crime Commission.
The committee also noted a history of bad blood hampering co-operation between the agencies.
It quoted Mr O'Callaghan admitting five years ago there had been a "reticence" about them working together.
"There were issues of trust, issues of perceived competence and, I suppose, issues of culture to stop those things from occurring," he said in September 2009.
The committee recommended the description of "organised crime" in the CCC Act be amended to cover suspected crime or a crime that is likely to occur. It also recommended the Act be amended to prevent the "re-fortification of premises previously dismantled by police".
