Ms BADGER – Am I permitted to ask a question about fire or are we exclusively doing police?
Mr ELLIS – We’ll do fire after, if that works, because we have to change all the people at the table and that sort of stuff.
Ms BADGER – Okay, sure, no worries. Can I just get clarification on the time allowed if we’re going to split up the portfolios so we can arrange our questions given that wasn’t outlined at the beginning?
Mr ELLIS – I’m in the committee’s hands, Chair, as far as how long you want to spend on each one?
CHAIR – It’s really up to you as a committee as to how much time you would like, as far as I’m concerned.
Ms BADGER – I’ve only got one question, so if no-one else has got one I’ll just wait until right at the end, perhaps.
Ms BUTLER – I also have some questions on fire and SES as well.
CHAIR -Are there any more questions particularly for police?
Mrs GREENE – Yes.
CHAIR – Alright, so just stick to those, Ms Badger.
Mr ELLIS – We’ve got to call AC Blackwood to the table at some stage.
Ms BADGER – My question is to Mr Blackwood – no.
Mr ELLIS – Well done.
Ms BADGER – Minister, could you please outline some of the details of the use-of-force options trial funded in the Budget? I understand from the media and also in your response to the member for Clark’s, Mr Vermey, question before that will involve the rollout of tasers. However, it’s an options trial, which sort of implies that other technologies would be involved, so can you please provide some more details on that line item?
Mr ELLIS – Sure, Ms Badger. This is an important part of the Budget that provides a 12-month trial of tasers for frontline officers which provides extra use-of-force options and greater safety in high-risk situations. I’ll pass over to the commissioner to talk through some of the details.
Ms ADAMS – Thank you, minister. Developing a safe model of policing is a key priority for Tasmania Police and it is a key priority in our annual strategy. We want to continue to build a safe environment for our police officers. As you can imagine, the jobs that they face each day can be quite challenging. As part of our commitment to a safe model of policing, we undertook a review of our operational skills training and our use of force options.
In addition to that, we conducted a work health and safety review as a result of the tragic North Motton incident. In both of those reviews it was identified that we had a capability gap in terms of the use of tasers. Every jurisdiction across Australia has a taser as a capability that they can utilise. We’ve been very cautious in moving towards the use of tasers. We wanted to ensure that the use of tasers is well regulated through training and a clear understanding of when that use-of-force option should be relied upon by our officers.
Following that cautious approach, we believe that a trial of taser conducted over the next 12 months will allow us an opportunity to really evaluate how taser is used during that time. It would be ideal if we’re not using it at all and we don’t have any critical incidents, but unfortunately, it’s the nature of policing that our officers are attending critical incidents every day.
We will look to deploy the taser over a period of 12 months to 50 officers. We are going to purchase 50 tasers, and we’ll take advice from our Operational Skills unit as to where they should be deployed, but most likely in our 24/7 and country areas. Then we will seek to evaluate it. If we think the gap has been closed because we’ve implemented that new capability, we will then provide a budget submission to look at a broader expansion of that capability.
Ms BADGER – Thank you. To clarify, as far as that line item in the Budget’s concerned, that was called the ‘Force options’ ‑ that is exclusively relating to tasers?
Ms ADAMS – If you’re referring to the line item, it actually refers to – If you’re talking about police protective equipment and safety enhancements, as it’s described? That line item has three things.
Ms BADGER – Yes, as it’s related to the ‘Forced options trial’, which is funded.
Ms ADAMS – In that particular line item it covers the MIPV vests, as well as the wands, and then 50 tasers.
Ms BADGER – Yes, okay, great. Thank you.
Ms BADGER – Sorry, that was just clarifying the first part of my question.
My second question – you mentioned that the review that’s gone into making this decision, obviously, there have been reviews in the past into this as well that haven’t resulted in this decision, in 2009, 2011 and 2016. Is that review public? Is it going to be made public, to help the public understand what’s changed since the previous reviews, and whether that also looks into the training that police are going to be undertaking as well?
Mr ELLIS – It would be fair to say one that of the big things that’s changed is actually taser technology. Tasmania Police’s ability to effectively leapfrog some of those older generations of tasers into a much more effective use of force option has really prompted a rethink, but I’ll pass over to the Commissioner.
Ms ADAMS – Through you, minister. I wouldn’t see that report being made public. It does identify our use of force options and provides some commentary around other states and I don’t think it would be appropriate to share the jurisdictional scan of other jurisdictions. What I can say is that I’m really proud that we’ve taken a really deliberate approach to continually assessing that gap. Those reviews demonstrate that. We have been really cautious in terms of the decision‑making to consider taser.
What we have found, though, is there is a prevalence of knives in Tasmania. The interactions and the use of force reports that we get on a daily and weekly basis highlight that we have more members in the community that are carrying knives. Our officers are also facing a greater number of people who are affected by alcohol, mental health‑related issues and illicit drugs. This is about keeping those individuals safe but also our police officers safe, and providing an additional capability for them to consider in the resolution of that incident in a safe way.
