MELBOURNE IS NOT NEW YORK

And a zero-tolerance approach to crime prevention is not the answer.

VICTORIA remains the safest state in Australia, with just 1.4 murders a
year for every 100,000 people.

Australia-wide, there are 1.7 homicides per 100,000, which is about the
same rate as a century ago. Moreover, by far the most common place for
murder or violent assault to occur is in the home. Our streets, on
international comparisons, are safe. Even so, the latest national crime
statistics do show a disturbing increase in property crimes accompanied by
violence.

Across Australia, armed robberies increased 44 per cent in a year. In New
South Wales, they increased by a particularly disturbing 65 per cent. In
law-abiding Victoria (with an overall crime rate about 20 per cent below
the national average), armed hold-ups rose 40 per cent.

There is one main reason for the dramatic increase in violent robberies:
drugs. The Victorian police chief commissioner, Mr Neil Comrie, estimates
that between 40 and 70 per cent of crime is drug-related, that is,
committed either by people who are under the influence of drugs or by
people desperate to get money to buy drugs.

This has important implications for law-and-order policy, and we applaud
the fact that Victoria is taking a national lead in responding to these
demands. Recently, after the success of a pilot program in which first-time
cannabis users were cautioned rather than charged, it was announced that
Broadmeadows police would also begin a trial of the scheme for other
illicit drugs, including heroin.

This is not an approval of drug-taking, but a recognition that the
prohibitionist approach to the growing problem of drug dependency has not
worked, and that there needs to be a shift from treating it as criminal
problem to treating it as a health issue.

The Premier, Mr Jeff Kennett, has been in New York talking to senior police
about that city's ``zero-tolerance'' approach to crime prevention. However,
he has said he is more interested in the New York Police Department's
management systems than its emphasis on prosecuting people for minor
offences.

Mr Kennett deserves credit for adhering - against the wishes of some in his
party - to his policy of allowing greater police discretion in minor drug
cases.

The increases in armed robberies are serious, but Melbourne remains a safe
and secure place to live, and it is more important to try to remove the
cause of the problem than to rely on zero-tolerance measures.

As Mr Comrie says, there are no quick fixes to addressing crime.

And what is appropriate for New York may not be appropriate for Melbourne.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)