Chris Cahill: Police Association President on the charges laid against gang members after the new laws were launched

More than 3,000 charges have been filed against gang members in the three months from the launch of new laws. 

Police have seized 76 gang patches and 67 guns under the Government's patch ban. 

The Police Commissioner says gang members have been mostly compliant since the laws banning insignia began. 

Police Association President Chris Cahill told Andrew Dickens the gangs seem to have realised very quickly that if they wear their patches, they’ll lose them permanently. 

And if they don’t act immediately, police will turn up with a search warrant the next morning, he says. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the gang patch ban appears to be going well.
This is according to police figures. It's only been what
has it been three months since the band came into place,
and since then police have laid just over three thousand charges.
They've seized over seventy it was about seventy firearms, and
they've seized a total of seventy six patches. So Chris

(00:21):
Carhill is the president of the Police Association, He's got
up early for us. Good morning, dear Chris, Good morning Andrew.
Ten thousand patch gang members in this country, seventy six
patches confiscated. Did we only catch the stupid ones?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, no, it's actually that the gangs complied with the
law a lot better than probably anyone anticipated. Really. I
think they realized very quickly that if they wear their patch,
they're going to lose it permanently, and if they police
don't act immediately, because they might be safe too many
gang members, et cetera. Police will turn up with a
search forum the next morning, and that's where they've been

(00:54):
getting the good results with all the firearms, et cetera.
So compliance has been really good.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Do we underestimate the gang's intelligence and organization?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I think we have to be careful that just because
we're not seen in the public with their patches, they're
not still continuing to commit their crime. And that's sort
of a separate issue for police that they've got to
continue their large scale organized crime investigations. But from a
public perspective, you're not seeing these gang members patched up
in the street, and that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Ye, that's a good vibe. But we're here to fight crime.
Is this fighting crime enough?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I think it's a different way of doing it.
I mean, I think it's important that you're feeling safe
is sometimes just as important as has been safe. And
when the public are out there, they're at the cafes
that are in the main street and they're not seeing
the groups of patched members. That makes them feel safer.
But certainly police still have to keep up those operations.
In the fact they've laid three thousand charges for different

(01:57):
types of offenses says that they're still doing that.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Of course, I ended up behind a gang convoy the
other day on Straight Higway too, and there were no patches,
that's for sure, But there were a lot of white
T shirts that were a lot of black leather jerkins
who was obviously the Harley Davidson's and they all seem
to have a bandanna and one or the other of
their pockets. So they've just moved on to a different
way of signifying their presence, haven't they.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
To a degree though, I think if you talk to
the public and police here that saying it feels safer
not seeing the big patches where they use them to intimidate,
it is making a difference. I think the long term
will will it actually reduce gang numbers? I think that's
something that's going to take a while to understand.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yes, exactly. My final question is how long will this
remain effective? Because we only got seventy six out of
ten thousand, and so, as I said at the beginning,
they were the stupid ones. The smart ones are going
to get away from the patch, and as we saw
on the Tellyla, people are going to say there was
a gang member there, who say, well, you're going to
see a whole lot more facial tattoos. So the question
is how long will the gang pat rules remain effective

(03:01):
in shaking the tree to find the other crimes?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, that is you know, time will be the one
that clearly tells that I think, but you know the fact,
there's been three thousand charges, so it says it's been
pretty effective at the moment in keeping the setting that
control over the gangs. Everything will adapt and police will
have to adapt as well. But I still think I'd
rather see streets without those gang patches on them than
what we had oh prior to that. Oh.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Absolutely, don't get me wrong. I'm behind the gang patch.
It has been great. It has given a bit of
vibe around the place. I thank you for your comments.
Chris Carhill for the Police Association President. For more from
earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
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