Assaults down but Cross residents angry

Assaults in Kings Cross continued to fall over the past three months despite an increase in the number of licensed premises, reported Superintendent Tony Crandall at a Police community meeting last Thursday. Fourteen residents attended.

There are now 285 licensed premises in a three km square area, he said.

Police maps showing a large cluster of incidents near the Coke sign prompted resident Sue Hanley to ask after data that might link this to the recently opened Trademark Hotel, Piano Room and Kings Cross Hotels in that area.

“You’ll get no joy out of that,” said Supt Crandall, pointing out that despite the increase in licensed premises there were still fewer assaults.

“When we heard that the Kings Cross Hotel was going to re-open as a five-storey venue we all said ‘Oh, no!’ but in fact there have been minimal incidents there,” he said.

While assaults had generally fallen statewide since June 2008, this was not the case in all Local Area Commands (LACs) so from that perspective Kings Cross was doing comparatively better, said Supt Crandall.

However it was possible that licensed premises were reporting fewer incidents since lockout rules had been applied to some venues based on controversial assault data.

“But it’s mainly about better policing – that’s what I’m going to tell you anyway,” he joked.

More seriously, he said police were spending more time on the streets interacting with people instead of driving past in cars, and this was getting results. Police performance had been measured since the 1980s on crime prevention as well as arrest rates.

Although person searches had risen during the quarter, drug detections were down. There was more heroin being detected in comparison to pharmaceutical opioids, which addicts substitute for heroin when supply is short.

Several residents complained about ‘undesirable’ people and drug dealers in the streets.

“You come out of the station, turn left into the jewel of Sydney’s entertainment precinct and you see them all sitting on milk crates in the doorways – what impression does that give people of Kings Cross?” one asked.

Some dealers who habitually offered people ‘smoko’ in the street had been doing so for years.

Supt Crandall said the police ‘regularly turn over these people.’

He explained that police actively move-on people they know to have a history of offending, or whose behaviour makes others uncomfortable. Some were ordered to stay 1 km away from Kings Cross for 24 hours. He acknowledged this could result in a revolving door effect as police in different commands moved people on to the next command.

During sometimes heated complaints at the meeting about undesirable people in the streets Constable Melanie Roseman pointed out that “These people are homeless – they have to sit somewhere.”

But what riled the residents most was the noise from people and vehicles late at night in Kings Cross.

Supt Crandall said it was difficult to control people on the street. In an ideal world he said that if all the pubs were closed at 2 am and the trains ran all night police would quickly move people into the trains and away from the area.

As it is, weekend trains stop at around 1.30am. He said police along with other agencies regularly mount operations in Cowper Wharf Road in Woolloomooloo to pull over and book modified vehicles.

Also trending down were stealing, robbery and stealing from motor vehicles. Police had made several arrests, which helped this trend. One man with a known drug problem had fired two shots into a C-store before police tracked him down and arrested him with his loaded weapon. Four more thieves had been arrested in Springfield Avenue and two Woolloomooloo lads had been arrested for stealing from motor vehicles. However there had been a spike in Break-and-Enter offences.