Asian police, experts to help fight crime in Australia
Asian police, experts to help fight crime in Australia
SYDNEY (Reuter): Police in Australia's most populous state are
planning to recruit Asian police and crime experts after the
murder of a local politician who campaigned strongly against
Asian gangs in a Sydney suburb.
New South Wales police minister Garry West said yesterday that
new amendments to the state's Police Act would allow the
recruiting of ranking Asian officers or those with expertise in
organized crime.
State Labor parliamentarian John Newman, 49, had campaigned
for years against Asian gang crimes in his Cabramatta electorate
before he was shot dead at his home last week.
Local media reported that detectives were seeking help from
police in Hong Kong and the United States.
The killing has turned the spotlight on Cabramatta, a district
of immigrants mostly from China and Vietnam and considered the
most ethnically diverse area in Australia.
West told reporters police officers and crime experts from
Asia would help in areas where Asian immigration was rising fast
and would help "to ensure New South Wales (has)...a police
service that reflects the community mix."
He said most of the police would probably come from Hong Kong.
He stressed that detectives were not yet linking Newman's murder
to Asian organized crime.
"I don't think we can take any assumptions at this stage and
try and relate the murder of John Newman back to the Asian
organized crime because at this stage there is no evidence of
motive," West said.
"There are a number of leads and motivations and Asian
organized crime is one."
Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper said detectives were
asking Hong Kong police to help find a Chinese businessman who
was married to Newman's fiance, 28-year old Chinese-born Xiao
Jingwang, before she moved to Australia two years ago.
Just before his death, Newman had produced data showing the
suburb's murder rate running at 3.8 victims per 100,000 people
compared with a state average of 1.9 per 100,000.
At the time of his death, Newman was developing a plan to
expose an Indochinese crime ring in Cabramatta by using
surveillance techniques imported from the United States, The Sun-
Herald newspaper in Sydney reported yesterday.
The paper said Newman's plan included stiffer jail sentences,
more frequent deportations and undercover Asian police officers.