Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-08 Daily Xml

Contents

STOLEN PROPERTY

In reply to the Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (2 April 2008).

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning): On Friday 28 March 2008 members of the Northern Operations Service Tactical Unit (NOS Tac Unit) seized over 3000 items of property, believed to be stolen.

To manually trace the owners of all the stolen items and return them may have taken several weeks due to the large amount of property seized. Therefore it was decided to plan a phone in to expedite and streamline the property identification process. This was planned to occur between 12.00pm and 7.00pm on Tuesday 1 April 2008 at the NOS Tac Unit office.

A media conference was held on Monday 31 March 2008 relaying this information to the public.

During the course of the phone-in, 250 calls were received on the nominated telephone line. The members assigned to the phone in worked constantly throughout the day, with the phone line diverting to two other areas within the Holden Hill Police complex if the phone line was engaged. Every effort was made to capture all incoming calls.

Unfortunately, due to the large amount of calls received, it was likely that some callers may have experienced delays. This was not due to a lack of resources but solely due to an underestimation of the number of likely callers.

The constituent who raised the issue with the Hon. Dennis Hood has since been contacted by police and the matter resolved to their satisfaction