DRUG USERS BLAMED FOR CRIME SURGE

The big increase in robberies involving knives and firearms in NSW,
revealed in official figures yesterday, is being fuelled by the rising
numbers of drug users, the Police Commissioner, Mr Peter Ryan, said.

Knife-point robberies, the majority in Sydney, have increased by 77
per cent and gunpoint robberies by more than 33 per cent over the two
years to December 1997, the figures show.

Sydney had about 3,000 robberies last year involving a weapon other
than a gun - mostly knives - compared with fewer than 1,700 the year
before. There were about 1,000 armed robberies compared with about 700
in 1996.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Ryan said: "I think there is an increase
in heroin use and drug use generally and the only way people can
manage to buy drugs is to steal, break into houses, break into cars
and to rob people in the street.

"The root cause of the majority of crimes of this nature are drugs and
drug abuse and we need to be tackling that as an issue as well."

Mr Ryan's remarks on heroin users were echoed by Dr Don Weatherburn,
director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, which
compiled the statistics from crimes reported to police.

"Given a lot of involvement by heroin users in robbery, I think the
best bet is that it is heroin which is driving it," he said.

Mr Ryan said the increase in knife-related crime was not because it
was now harder to get guns, but because there was a "determination
among many people just to carry knives" - not for offensive purposes
but because they thought they were going to be robbed.

The media's portrayal of violence was at least partly to blame for the
crime levels, he said. "What really worries me is the way that
violence is portrayed on our televisions.

"The way that the media portray the solving of disputes with violence
- - use this knife, use the gun - the hero is the man who uses the gun
and there's no questions asked."

Dr Weatherburn said the rising numbers of fatal heroin overdoses and
increases in the numbers of people seeking treatment for heroin
addition pointed to an increase in the number of users.

The surge in knifepoint and firearm robberies was "an abrupt and
dramatic change" because from the beginning of the decade to 1994 the
number of robberies had been stable.

The figures were released as the State Government is introducing new
measures to combat knife attacks, including wider search powers for
police, increased penalties for carrying prohibited knives and a ban,
from today, on the sale of knives to those under 16.

But Dr Weatherburn had doubts about whether these measures would deter
drug users with knives. "Somebody who is desperate for a fix of heroin
is not necessarily going to be deflected by the thought that someone
might search them."

He said knifepoint robberies could be reduced by police concentrating
on known hot spots - a move Mr Ryan said later would be
implemented.

The Minister for Police, Mr Whelan, said the figures showed fewer
crimes were on the increase and it was clear that under Mr Ryan "the
police service is getting back to basics - fighting crime".