Vic: Doyle wants Victorian police to follow New York blueprint

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2009
Vic: Doyle wants Victorian police to follow New York blueprint

MELBOURNE, Aug 11 AAP - Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says police need to follow
the blueprint used by former New York counterpart Rudi Giuliani in a bid to curb violence
in the city.

Police figures published in The Age newspaper on Tuesday show almost half of the assaults
in the central business district, Docklands and Southbank are by offenders from Melbourne's
west and north-western suburbs.

In the latest incident, a 33-year-old Queensland tourist remains in a coma after he
was bashed outside a Melbourne city hotel by a gang of five men early on Sunday.

Mr Doyle said more needed to be done to stop "bogan" troublemakers in their home suburbs
before they entered the city.

"These are people that travel into the city and what they do is, they come in looking
for trouble," Mr Doyle told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

"Whether that is through excessive use of alcohol or drugs or violence or a combination
of all three, that's what these people are after.

"This is one of the things, when I spoke to Rudi Giuliani, this is one of the things
he did in New York.

"First all of all what he did, he targeted the places in the city that were the real
hotspots and we certainly do that.

"Then he reached out beyond that and looked at transport corridors as well as the suburbs
of origin of the troublemakers.

"By putting some police in that area and by doing some active policing in the areas
where they come from, you can actually prevent these problems getting to the CBD in the
first place."

Mr Doyle said he had spoken with police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland about introducing
a police "flying squad" tried by police in other large cities around the world which would
target trouble spots.

The Brumby government announced at the weekend 120 more police would soon patrol Melbourne's
streets.

"A flying squad is not a bad idea," Mr Doyle said.

"It's not just to react in the city. We'll certainly have the police to do that.

"But if we have got these hotspots that are out in the suburbs, which is where the
trouble begins, then we actually need to do something about active policing in those areas
as well."

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KEYWORD: CRIME VIC UPDATE

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