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McDevitt, Ben --- "ACT Policing fights burglary and vehicle theft &'intelligently'" [2001] AUFPPlatypus 3; (2001) 70 Platypus: Journal of the Australian Federal Police, Article 3


ACT Policing fights burglary and vehicle theft ‘intelligently’

By Acting Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt

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Anyone who has experienced a burglary understands the significant psychological impact it leaves behind. The angst and fear associated with a violation of one's private home is perhaps one of the most traumatic experiences most people will face in their lifetime.

Therefore, burglary was an obvious choice of crime to target when a re-modelled crime fighting strategy was put to the test in the ACT last year. In this article, Acting Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt reveals the story and the success behind ACT Policing's intelligence-led model of policing.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt

The ACT challenge

Responsibility for the provision of policing services within the Australian Capital Territory offers unique challenges and opportunities to the AFP.

Canberra is home to around 320,000 people, most of whom enjoy relatively high standards of living. Literacy and employment rates in the Territory are comparatively favourable and the general population is well educated. We have good road infrastructure, no slums and a low degree of 'gang' type activity. Our crime rates tend to be stable and in the low to medium category.

But despite being one of the safest cities in Australia, Canberra has, over recent years, experienced an increasing drug problem. A symptom of this underlying drug problem has been a sharp increase in volume crime, predominantly the offences of residential burglary and car theft. The spates of opportunistic burglaries committed against relatively soft target homes within the bush capital's suburbs had escalated to the stage that by the end of 1999, the ACT had the highest burglary rate per capita in Australia.

In order to address the increasing rates of property crime, ACT policing looked for a fresh approach to policing, a model conducive to the ACT's social and geographical environment and within the confines of our resource capabilities.

It soon became clear that the uniqueness of Canberra as a city and Canberrans as a population posed a number of challenges, mainly in that no single, traditional model of policing offered an exact fit. At one time, a 'Country Town' model might have been appropriate, but the fact remains that Canberra is no longer a country town, as evidenced through activities of expanding criminal networks that traditionally operated in larger cities. Nevertheless, elements of the country town model remain relevant.

During initial discussions and deliberations over the most appropriate strategies, one simple point stuck out - the days of random patrolling were long gone. We simply couldn't afford to rely on 'gut feelings' when determining when and where our resources should be deployed. The reality was that we did not have the resources to be anything but intelligence led and in order to achieve results, the decisions we made at an operational level needed to be based on solid intelligence, such as geographic hot spots and profiles of offenders.

A unique policing model

With this important consideration in mind, we set about establishing an intelligence-led model of policing which ultimately aims to:

• provide an intelligence structure in which information is gathered at a grass roots level and fed into resource allocation decisions;

• better integrate intelligence into operations;

• recognise that crime prevention is critical, that is, crime needs to be managed not just investigated;

• break down 'patch mentality' barriers between functional areas;

• recognise that some specialists are required, no one should be expected to be a 'jack of all trades'; and

• accept that police do not have a monopoly on law enforcement or crime prevention and seek community ownership and involvement in resolutions.

The implementation of the model has been driven largely through the activities of the Operations Committee and the Intelligence Committee. The Operations Committee consists of coordinators of all operational line areas as well as coordinators of crime prevention and intelligence. The Operations Committee meets regularly to determine ACT Policing priorities across the three key areas of response/investigations, intelligence and crime prevention. The priorities set are largely based upon recommendations made through the Intelligence Committee which delivers detailed analysis of emerging crime trends, crime 'hot spots' and specific recidivist offenders. The Intelligence Committee is comprised of tacticians and intelligence officers attached to each functional or geographical area.

Early reports from the Intelligence Committee identified burglary as the most critical problem due to its prevalence, invasive nature and the trauma it causes to victims. Motor vehicle theft was also identified as an increasing problem in the Territory and consequently, the Operations Committee decided to put a renewed emphasis on these two forms of volume crime.

Operation Dilute

Our newly developed policing model had its first 'test run' in the form of Operation Dilute, launched on May 8, 2000. The seven-week operation, which aimed to curb the fast rising numbers of burglary and car theft, essentially involved:

• maximising opportunities to obtain the best evidence from burglary scenes and recovered stolen motor vehicles;

• improving follow-up action with complainants;

• establishing a 12-person burglary/stolen motor vehicle strike team tasked with high profile engagement of known recidivist offenders;

• adopting a pro-arrest, pro-charge philosophy for recidivist burglars and car thieves;

• targeting the illicit property market;

• enhancing follow-up action regarding apprehended offenders, including subsequent re-interviews in relation to other offences and searches of residences whenever legally permissible;

• using real-time intelligence support to target burglary and stolen motor vehicle hot spots; and

• implementing a high-profile media awareness campaign highlighting the progress of the operation and linked crime prevention activities.

Within weeks, Operation Dilute had already achieved results. By the end of the operation on June 30, 275 people had been charged with almost 900 offences and $125,000 worth of stolen property recovered. Not only did the operation halt the rising burglary and stolen motor vehicle trend, it reversed it in terms of numbers of offences committed.

But despite these good results, there was no time for complacency.

Partners in crime

At the end of June, we launched phase two of the offensive, in the form of Operation Strikeback (targeting burglary) and Operation Handbrake (targeting stolen motor vehicles), to maintain the momentum and build on the success of Operation Dilute. Support for the two longer-term Operations was significantly boosted by the ACT Government's decision to allocate an additional $10 million to community policing during the 2000-01 financial year, part of which was used to expand and diversify the new operations.

Naturally, maintaining the intelligence-led philosophy behind Operation Dilute was critical to the success of the two new operations.

Intelligence was continually gathered and reviewed, and shared problems and priorities pinpointed. First response teams were again encouraged to maximise the gathering of evidence through doorknocks and on-going contact with complainants.

Gathering physical evidence was also made a priority during the two new operations. Patrols were encouraged to focus on the potential for gathering fingerprint or DNA evidence at burglary scenes and from recovered stolen motor vehicles. Where there was some likelihood of gaining additional evidence, the onus was on the response team to notify forensics staff and have them attend the scene. The need for further education of staff as to what to look for in terms of physical evidence was identified and addressed. In addition, a member of Forensic Services was invited to join the Operations Committee to report on a weekly basis on crime scenes visited, trends identified and forensic evidence gathered.

As soon as a suspect was apprehended for burglary or stolen motor vehicle offences, a member of the relevant strike team was notified to ensure the best possible follow-up action was taken, including searches of offenders' homes and the identification of co-offenders. Combined efforts by arresting members and strike team staff ensured best chances of evidence and intelligence gathering and led to multiple offences being disclosed. The underlying reality is that very few burglars are ever caught on their first offence.

Traffic teams were also heavily involved in the operations. Team leaders were required to maintain close links with the strike teams with a view to increasing police visibility on routes identified as commonly used by car thieves. Random breath tests were also conducted in burglary "hotspots" and all traffic team members were required to have a contemporary knowledge of current stolen vehicles and the areas where they were being recovered. The mindset of all operational police was such that no matter what their principal duties, all were aware that burglars and car thieves were our top priority.

The Property Crime Team was assigned to conduct intelligence probes and investigations with a view to taking aggressive action against those engaged in the receipt and handling of stolen property. It remains apparent that the local market is unable to absorb the quantities of goods being stolen in burglaries and interstate 'receiving' networks were identified and targeted.

Raising awareness

Two elements that were particularly critical to the success of Handbrake and Strikeback were the alignment of crime prevention strategies with operational activities and the implementation of an extensive media campaign.

Crime prevention methodologies were an integral part of the Operations Committee decision making and crime prevention members worked closely with the community to heighten awareness about home and vehicle security and specific ways to make homes, cars and personal property more secure. Unfortunately, on a number of occasions we conducted carpark campaigns and numerous vehicles were found unlocked in vulnerable carparks.

A high profile media campaign was launched and maintained throughout the operations, with the aim of giving ownership of the burglary and stolen motor vehicle problems to Canberrans. Commitment was given at the start to reveal our success or otherwise on a weekly basis and to invite and progress community involvement.

Obviously a myriad of factors determining crime levels lie beyond the ambit of police control. One must therefore be cautious in claiming a definite causal link between police activity and changes in the incidence of recorded crime. However, innovative police action can make a difference in terms of the numbers of offences being committed within a given social context and in terms of the numbers of those offences which are resolved. Interestingly, the police activity, particularly within a high profile publicity campaign, can actually lead to a rise in the numbers of reported offences since victims may believe that there could be benefit in actually reporting the offence. Victims may not report offences because they feel it is not important enough, particularly in the case of attempted burglary where entry to premises is not actually gained. Another reason relates to the perception that reporting crime will not achieve a desirable outcome for the victim.

Results after the first few weeks of Operations Strikeback and Handbrake were striking, with both stolen motor vehicle and burglary crimes dropping to their lowest levels in years.

By the end of August, the weekly average of stolen motor vehicle offences (SMVs) had fallen from 79 in April (before Operation Dilute) to 41. Burglary rates showed a similar trend, dropping from 184 a week in April to 121. The success has continued and between July and December last year, we had achieved an 18 per cent drop in burglary offences and a 32 per cent drop in SMV offences compared to the same period in 1999.

In effect, the concentration of resources and intelligence during the operations had reversed a three-year upward trend in burglaries and motor vehicle theft in the ACT and highlighted the success of the intelligence-led policing model.

Crime displacement

The success of the targeted strategies adopted within the ACT has led to some displacement, both in terms of the geographical areas in which burglars choose to operate and in terms of displacement to other forms of offences. During the latter stages of Dilute, the risk of displacement of offence type from burglary to soft target armed robbery was predicted. The end of 2000 saw a sharp increase in the incidence of soft target robbery of vulnerable premises as well as 'bag snatching' type offences.

In this instance, the Operations Committee chose crime prevention as the primary tool for tackling these two forms of crime, and an appropriate strategy was put in place to give the community more ownership of the problem.

Members of the crime prevention team embarked on a major business awareness and education campaign, visiting more than 3000 local businesses and advising business owners and staff on how protect themselves and their businesses against robbery. The campaign, supported by the ACT Chamber of Commerce, sought to achieve three aims: to enhance the safety of persons confronted by someone committing an armed robbery; to ensure this type of crime does not pay through minimising proceeds and hardening potential targets; and to enhance the chances of apprehending offenders. It also empowered business owners and operators by getting them involved and encouraging them to take action and responsibility for their safety, wellbeing and livelihood. This strategy, combined with another high profile media campaign ultimately helped to transfer the fear of crime from potential victims to potential offenders.

In addition, a dedicated intelligence capacity was established to identify similar MOs and links between offences. It is significant to note that since July 1 last year, 40 arrests have been made in relation to robbery offences.

Intelligence led policing: the final verdict

Intelligence gathering and recording has always been a part of ACT Policing. But in order to realise our full potential, we need to take the time to analyse what we have and base our proactive and preventative strategies on these analyses. We need to work smarter rather than harder.

At its simplest, successful intelligence-led policing is about partnerships. It's about the development of strong relationships, communication and cooperation between functional teams within ACT Policing, and we are well on the way to achieving that. Previously, the different geographical and functional areas were all looking at their own problems independently and not looking at the overall trends and issues. The difference is that now, on a weekly basis, we look at our shared problems and we all agree on what our shared priorities are for the whole of the ACT.

But successful policing is more that just internal relations. It's also about police and the community and this link can never be emphasised enough. ACT Policing does not have a monopoly over crime in Canberra and we do not seek it. What we do want is community ownership and involvement in the resolution of crime in our city. Without this, an intelligence-led system will never reach the heights to which it aspires.

That is not to say we will ever release our grip on crime or scale down our efforts in maintaining Canberra's reputation as the safest capital city in the world in which to live and work. The success of the intelligence led model, particularly in terms of our ability to gather, analyse and interpret large volumes of intelligence and act upon it quickly, is a tribute to the untiring efforts and commitment of the men and women of ACT Policing. Last year's influx of 106 new officers combined with the return of members from overseas duty and new ACT budget initiatives also means we are in a better position than ever to build on the good work already done.

Editor's note:

As this edition of Platypus went to print, Act Policing was putting plans in motion to embark on a new operation to target burglaries in the ACT. Mr McDevitt said Operation Anchorage would address an upward trend in burglary offences experienced in the past two to three months. He said Operation Anchorage would build on the successes of Dilute and Strikeback to help Act Policing achieve its overall aim of a 20 per cent reduction in burglary offences this financial year, compared to the financial year before. The new operation will involve better cross-border relations with NSW Police and the utilisation of cutting-edge crime fighting technology.


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