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.