Blue army : paramilitary policing in Australia

Examination of how Victoria's Special Operations Group and their tactics have contributed to the extraordinary number of police shootings in Victoria. Looks at how these tactics have been passed on to the ordinary police. Based on author's research into the paramilitarisation of the police. Exposes the risks of allowing Australia's police forces to move away from their original charter of keeping the peace with the use of minimum force. Author lectures in Police Studies at Deakin University. She has represented the families of several men shot and killed by police in the late 1980s in her work as a community lawyer.

Counter-terrorism across the policing continuum

Over the past two decades private and hybrid forms of policing have grown considerably in Australia. As a result, governments have begun to recognize the role played by non-state police agencies and personnel in the provision of public order and safety, further extending and legitimizing non-state policing. In addition, the private ownership of critical infrastructure and 'communal spaces' has led to a central role for non-state police in the area of 'high policing' counter-terrorism. In response to changes to the auspices and providers of policing, state police were beginning to explore new ways of working with private and hybrid forms of policing, with the emergence of a new type of experiment in policing partnerships, the Police-Private Security Committee (POLSEC). This paper examines these trends and implications for ongoing developments in Australian policing.

Speed control and policing in a cellular mobile network: speedNet

In this paper, we describe SpeedNet, a GSM network variant which resembles an ad hoc wireless mobile network where base stations keep track of the velocities of mobile users (cars). SpeedNet is intended to track mobile users and their speed passively for both speed policing and control of traffic. The speed of the vehicle is controlled in a speed critical zone by means of an electro-mechanical control system, suitably referred to as VVLS (Vehicular Velocity Limiting System). VVLS is mounted on the vehicle and responds to the command signals generated by the base station. It also determines the next base station to handoff, in order to improve the connection reliability and bandwidth efficiency of the underlying network. Robust Extended Kalman Filter (REKF) is used as a passive velocity estimator of the mobile user with the widely used proportional and integral controller speed control. We demonstrate through simulation and analysis that our prediction algorithm can successfully estimate the mobile user’s velocity with low system complexity as it requires two closest mobile base station measurements and also it is robust against system uncertainties due to the inherent deterministic nature in the mobility model.

In the shadow of the volcanoes: the impact of intervention on the nutrition and health status of Rwandan refugee children in Zaire two years from the exodus

Objective: To evaluate the public health and nutritional situation of refugee children in Katale camp, Eastern Zaire, after two years of nutritional and health intervention from 1994 to 1996.
Design: Cross-sectional survey using a two-stage cluster sampling method. Anthropometric data were collected from 28 May 1996 to 4 June 1996. Retrospective review of food basket monitoring data over the preceding six months and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' weekly mortality data was conducted. Measles immunisation coverage data were surveyed simultaneously, using child health records.
Main outcome measures: Nutritional status measured by weight-for-height index (W/H), measles immunisation status, average daily energy content of the general food ration and crude mortality rate.
Setting: Katale refugee camp, Zaire, June 1996.
Analysis: Weight-for-height index and proportion of immunised children were computed using EPINUT, part of EPINFO computer package.
Results: Malnutrition was found to be most prevalent in children aged six to 29 months old (W/H < -2 Z-score and/or oedema: 6.2%; 95% CI: 3.4%, 10.6%), among whom the malnutrition rate was almost double the overall malnutrition prevalence (W/H < -2 Z-score and/or oedema: 3.5% (95% CI: 1.5%, 7.2%). The general food ration, although conforming to the World Food Program minimum standards of adequacy in terms of variety (being composed of cereals, oil, beans, blended cereal and legume mixes and salt), provided only 6240 kJ on average (95% CI: 5040, 7140 kJ) per person per day, thus meeting only 57% to 84% of the minimum energy requirements for an adult, and falling well below the needs for sub groups with higher nutritional requirements such as children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and the sick. Measles immunisation coverage in children nine to 59 months was 88.6%. The crude mortality rate was found to be 0.3 per 10 000 per day. Refugees received 15 litres of clean water per person per day.
Conclusion: Public health interventions in Katale camp 1994 to 1996 had reduced mortality and morbidity rates dramatically. This was not reflected in the malnutrition rates for children under five years, that remained stable after an initial fall despite two years of nutritional intervention. The factors contributed to this were related to an inadequate general food ration (due to food shortages), lack of ability to supplement the diet, (due to economic restrictions that were imposed in the camp) and inequities in the food distribution process (due to food being siphoned off by camp leaders for military purposes).

Shadow boxing: Indonesian writers and the Ramayana in the new order

This article is a study of the ideas, visions, and styles of a number of Indonesia's writers in the New Order-in particular, the final years of the New Order-who chose to rework and reinterpret the Ramayana epic of the Javanese wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre. The deliberate choice by these writers to use Indonesian as their medium of linguistic communication has proven to be a decision in favor of distancing themselves from their mother-tongue, Javanese, and of targeting a larger "national" audience, thus signaling their concern for non-Javanese Indonesians. By the same token, the Indonesian language of wayang literary representations was often heavily Javanese in its flavor and style, and the indigenized wayang characters and plots appropriated were also, naturally, very much regional in origin.

Speed control and policing in a cellular mobile network: SpeedNet

In this paper, we describe SpeedNet, a GSM network variant which resembles an ad hoc wireless mobile network where base stations (possibly other vehicles in the network) keep track of the velocities of mobile users (cars). SpeedNet is intended to track mobile users and their speed passively for both speed policing and control of traffic. The speed of the vehicle is controlled in a speed critical zone by means of an electro-mechanical control system, suitably referred to as VVLS (vehicular velocity limiting system). VVLS is mounted in the vehicle and responds to the command signals generated by the base station. It also determines the next basestation to handoff, in order to improve the connection reliability and bandwidth efficiency of the underlying network. Robust extended Kalman filter (REKF) is used as a passive velocity estimator of the mobile user with the widely used proportional and integral controller speed control. We demonstrate through simulation and analysis that our prediction algorithm can successfully estimate the mobile users velocity with low system complexity as it requires two closet mobile-base station measurement and also it is robust against system uncertainties due to the inherent deterministic nature in the mobility model.

Policing in the 'communal spaces' of major event venues

The recent re-conceptualization of 'mass private property' as one form of 'communal spaces' raises a series of questions concerning policing and security in these domains. This paper applies the concept of 'communal spaces' to an analysis of policing in 'major event venues.' We assess the character of policing in these communal spaces by drawing upon interviews conducted with policing—private and public—personnel operating in major event venues. The paper identifies different perspectives on the nature of policing in these communal spaces and tension between public and private police personnel concerning their respective roles and responsibilities. We conclude by raising issues concerning the implications for the 'public good' in policing at major event venues.

Surfing the crime net : policing, crime prevention and community safety in Australia

There can be no doubt that the Internet offers the possibility of increasing access to a range of sources of available information in a timely manner. This is particularly so as we increasingly seek to engage with information from outside our jurisdictional boundaries. While this hints at the effects of globalisation, it is also meant to be suggestive of the practical realities involved in researching (or simply following) developments occurring within emergent federal structures (for instance the European Union) or longer-standing federations such as the United States and Australia. Of course, a department or agency having a homepage and various links is only the start of the process of making information accessible. As will be indicated below, there remain significant limitations in the electronic material available from many agencies. Fortunately, there are also a number of organisations that enable the researcher to access original data and research publications.

'Fencing them in' : the A-league, policing and the dilemma of public order

The establishment of an elite national Australian soccer league has been accompanied by an unprecedented growth in popularity for the world game in several Australian cities. Such growth presents numerous challenges for public order maintenance, particularly in light of the widespread concern over the relationship between soccer, disasters in major closed venues and violence. After outlining the emerging issues, and the extant Australian research into the phenomena of policing and sports crowd disorder, this study offers a knowledge based approach to foster informed, reflective and collaborative policing in elite and sub-elite soccer venues. Rather than advocating a fundamental shift in the current public order policing paradigm, we suggest drawing on elements of best practice that are currently adopted in other Australian sporting and public order settings and appropriate overseas experience to facilitate a better understanding of the dynamics of Australian soccer fandom. The result should be the promotion of safer yet exciting events at which interactive crowd management based on harm minimization principles are key features.

Conflict of interest in policing and the public sector

Conflicts of interest are a key factor in the contemporary decline of trust in government and public institutions, eroding public trust in government and democratic systems. Drawing on two unique empirical studies involving policing and the broader public sector, this paper explores the meaning and dimensions of conflict of interest by examining public complaints about conflict of interest and providing distinctive insights into the nature of conflict of interest as a problem for public sector ethics. The paper analyses and explores appropriate regulatory and management approaches for conflict of interest, focusing on three elements: (1) dealing with private interests that are identifiably problematic in the way they clash with the duties of public officials; (2) managing conflicts as they arise in the course of public sector work (manifested in preferential and adverse treatment, and other problematic areas); and (3) developing ethical and accountable organisational cultures. It is concluded that effective and meaningful public sector ethics in the pursuit of the public interest must be based on an ethos of social accountability and a commitment to prioritise the public interest in both fact and appearance.