STONE PLEDGES TO HOUND OUT HOONS

CHIEF Minister Shane Stone pledged yesterday to rid the Northern Territory
of its public disorder problem even if it meant hounding itinerants "down
the track" into other States.

Speaking after examining Zero Tolerance Policing programs in New York and
Los Angeles, Mr Stone promised that hardline measures would be in place by
the end of the year.

"If it means driving these people out of the Territory, I consider that a
success in the same way we have done to drug users.

"We will be using those strategies all the way down the track. We are one
police jurisdiction. People may say all you are doing is hounding people
out of the Territory. If that is what it takes, that's what will be done."

But the president of the Northern Territory Criminal Lawyers Association,
Jon Tippett, accused the Government of targeting Aborigines with a failed
policy, while US critics claim the scheme just moves the problem to
neighbouring regions.

Mr Tippett branded Zero Tolerance Northern Territory-style a "mindless
policy" likely to disadvantage Aboriginal people further.

"We have seen in the Northern Territory such policing has brought local
communities into confrontation with the police and is likely to do so
again," he said. "It is a mindless policy of enforcement."

But Mr Stone said if a US-style crackdown on minor offences meant expanding
jails then "so be it".

Northern Territory police commissioner Brian Bates, who accompanied Mr
Stone to New York, said fear of crime among Territorians was out of
proportion with actuality but the community was demanding their streets be
free of itinerants and public disorder.

"The community in the Northern Territory is not happy with public disorder
and we ought to be doing even more," he said.