NSW police set up protest watch centre
New South Wales police have set up a 24-hour centre to monitor
anti-war activity across the state.
The centre, to be based somewhere in Sydney's CBD, will also focus on
public places where there are large gatherings of people.
Acting New South Wales police commissioner Andrew Scipione refuses to say
how many police resources will be put towards it but does say it will be
open for the duration of the war.
"We'll make a decision based on what we see unfolding in the coming
weeks and months," he said.
Following the Prime Minister's commitment of troops yesterday, the
Federal Government said Australia's security alert level would remain
unchanged, but Mr Scipione says police have decided that arrangements in
New South Wales need to be strengthened.
"The operations centre will co-ordinate all of our anti-war
demonstrations and we'll monitor them from that location and we'll ensure
we're there and standing by ready to deal with any issue that might arise
at any time during the day or night."
New South Wales Police Minister Michael Costa will meet senior police
today to discuss how to best protect potential targets.
"We do have experience based on the history of potential attacks on
mosques and synagogues, we had that the last time there was a
conflict," he said.
"Every time there is some heightened tension in the region we do put
our police on alert to ensure there are some sorts of patrols around
those sorts of institutions."
But anti-war protesters say they are very concerned their activities are
set to be monitored.
Bruce Childs from the Walk Against War Coalition says it appears to be a
change of heart by police and could lead to demonstrations being treated
the same way as terrorist threats.
"We've had an excellent relationship with the senior traffic
police," he said.
"I've attended meetings of all the public departments, the state
government departments presided over by the Premier's Department's
officer and they've all been very positive discussions so I'd be very
worried about any over-reaction of state police in this security
area."
http://abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-19mar2003-24.htm
