Police vote raises questions over crime stats

Police may start posting every single crime that occurs to social media as part of their fight for more pay.

But Neil Mitchell has questioned why this isn’t happening already, and whether it’s warping crime statistics.

The Police Association has been given the green light from Fair Work to run a ballot on protected industrial action.

There’s 50 different options for union members to vote on including:

• publicising all crime data to “Eyewatch” Facebook pages
• listing all offences on crime reports

Neil Mitchell wants to know why all offences and crime data aren’t already being made public.

“If they’re not all being reported are we getting a false indication of what the crime statistics are?” the 3AW Mornings host asked.

Union boss Sergeant Wayne Gatt explained some crimes are currently aggregated.

“The primary offences themselves might be listed, but not all the other subsidiary offences,” he said.

That could all change if the union’s pay fight drags on.

“We’ll encourage our members … if the ballot’s successful, to put everything out there for the community. They’ve got a right to know what’s happening,” Sergeant Gatt said.

Earlier, Police Minister Lisa Neville told Neil Mitchell she’s very confident a deal will be done before it gets to industrial action.

“Everyday we’re working with the Police Association,” she said.

“I think we can get a fair and reasonable deal that both meets the government’s wages policy but recognises the important role police play.”

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Image credit: Michael Dodge / Stringer