Yesterday, Senator COREY Wingar announced that he wanted to send an elite police force, the STAR team, to crack down on the defiant in the South. But 12 hours later, the new South Australian Police Commissioner dismissed his enthusiasm and decided to leave the matter to the police.
The police minister promised that the police would send the strongest team of STAR team members to youth parties to quell the growing violence in the south and crack down on juvenile delinquents in the region.
About 150 southern residents attended a public forum on Monday night to discuss recent stone-throwing incidents involving anti-social behaviour by southern juvenile delinquents groups along the southern highway.
Mr. Wingard, who was criticized by Labour for not attending the forum, said on Tuesday that the police had pledged additional strength, including the introduction of new community police and the involvement of the police`s STAR group, which was often tasked with high-risk situations, such as group besieging.
"STAR is monitoring some of the local criminal groups that make sure they can fight them when the time is right." He said.
The South Australian police declined to disclose details of the STAR team`s operations, such as the timing of the operation and the deployment of personnel.
But this morning, embarrassed Mr Windgard stressed that any order to the STAR team depended on the police chief.
"the police chief is the head of the deployment task, not the minister," Wingard said. "the police chief is dispatching all the police, and I`m sure they`ll make the right decision about what needs to be done."
At a community crime forum on Monday night, Mr Wingard described the Liberal prime minister as unable to defend the authority of the new government at a forum that citizens believed could not defend the authority of the new government.
As another dual role, sports minister, he was responsible for the launch of the special Olympics. But the opposition claimed that the new government had ignored the forum.
"I am both responsible and busy, and I have sent one of my senior officials and 10 senior members of the South Australian Police Force to host the forum. As police chief, I can`t be more happy to have them host the forum," he said, adding: "I am very happy that I have sent one of my senior officials and 10 senior members of the South Australian Police Force to host the forum." He said.
