History of policing

Jim Gainsford, Fairfield City Champion, 24 Jan 01

The troubled world of Cabramatta policing:

-Drug war erupts end 1999 leading to more than 40 shootings in 2000;

-February 2000: Commissioner Peter Ryan claims success in Cabramatta. ``We've reclaimed the streets of Cabramatta to a large extent,'' he says.

-February 2000: Cabramatta police chief Supt Peter Horton returns after two months secondment in Parramatta;

-Almost immediately, he narrowly averts a vote of no confidence from his officers;

-April 2000: Senior police descend on the area. Within a week, Cabramatta is visited by: Police Minister Paul Whelan, Deputy Commissioner Jeff Jarratt, Commissioner Peter Ryan, Opposition police spokesman Andrew Tinks and Hume Region Commander Chris Evans;

-One week later, officers from the Police Integrity Commission raid Cabramatta Police Station. Local police declined to speak on the issue.

-Mr Jarratt promises ``significant improvements'' to policing within three months;

-July 2000: NSW Upper House Inquiry Into Policing Resources in Cabramatta announced. Organised by Unity councillor Thang Ngo, and denounced by Cabramatta MP Reba Meagher as ``political grandstanding''.

-November 2000: Inquiry opens and includes evidence that arrests for drug use in Cabramatta have halved in the past two years. Dr Don Weatherburn, of the Bureau of Statistics, says the cause is probably an easing off by police;

-December 13: Leo Nguyen, 2, dies of heat stroke after his mother's BMW is stolen in Cabramatta, and dumped with him inside. He is not found for three hours.

-Former Cabramatta police chief Alan Leek tells inquiry that the suburb's police had suffered from ``questionable management practices''.

-Frank Hansen is announced as John Sweeney's successor. He is the third superintendent in nine months.