HOW BIG A PROBLEM IS KNIFE CRIME?
In recent years, we have seen increased efforts to fight knife crime. In Queensland, new laws and a media campaign were rolled out in 2023 to try to reduce the number of young people carrying knives.
In Victoria, gang members using knives as weapons has become increasingly problematic, with the chief commissioner giving evidence to a parliamentary committee and describing knife crime as being a significant issue for police.
In New South Wales, legislation was passed to double the penalties for people carrying knives in public, despite the executive director of the states Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research stating that use of knives in crime was at historically low levels.
The events that unfolded at Bondi last weekend are what police call an active armed offender incident. The Australia-New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee defines such events as: “An Active Armed Offender is defined as an armed offender who is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people, and who demonstrated their intention to continue to do so while having access to additional potential victims.”
In 2014, New South Wales Police, in collaboration with academics, adopted new policy responses to active armed offenders, with more than 10,000 officers trained in the new procedures.
The characteristics of such attacks can involve groups or lone offenders, who may be armed with firearms, knives or other weapons.
The selection of a major shopping centre on a weekend is in line with the methodology of active armed offenders in that they will chose a crowded environment that gives them freedom of movement and ready access to victims in order to achieve maximum harm.
The heroic actions of shopkeepers taking people into their shops, shoppers confronting the offender and the lone police officer who confronted and shot the offender would all have contributed to reducing the ability of the offender to kill or harm more victims.
As the terrorism committee noted in their guidelines, time plus freedom of movement equals increased casualties. The offender was denied this at Bondi.
Source: CNA
