A mini-Interpol
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
in the Pacific
A miniature Interpol is needed in the South Pacific, police commis sioners from Australian States, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands agreed at a five-day conference in Wellington in March. There was a need for an increasing degree of criminal intelligence to be exchanged on a regional basis to offset the ease and speed with which criminals could travel between countries throughout the region.
Exchanges of technical information will be stepped up, and details of sophisticated equipment for use in law enforcement will be shared.
Computers and telecommunication equipment are in this category. The interchange of police involved in manning the equipment and in charge of technical matters will be stepped up.
The conference chairman, Sir Angus Sharp, NZ Police Commis sioner, said the dominant theme of the conference was the need to estab lish a greater degree of police-public contact. All delegates acknowledged that the dispersal of commercial and entertainment venues through all major cities provided policing diffi culties, which could be met more effectively through a greater flow of information from the public.
It was crucial that a new emphasis be placed on the public becoming involved in helping the police to enforce the law, so that the public would become aware of its respon sibility, and acknowledge that the police, as agents of the public, had a right to assistance from the public.
The conference supported the early establishment of a forensic science institute in Canberra.
During a discussion on violence and gang offences, delegates said they were concerned at the seeming lenience extended to offenders by society, especially in crimes of violence.
Sir Angus said the rights of the community as a whole were in some what precarious balance with the protection the law now gave to criminals. In recent years there had been an alarming increase in serious crime. The commissioners felt that the interests of the community demanded increased powers for the police, rather than a whittling away of powers, which would inevitably lead to an upsurge of crime.