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Speaker 1: So the gang patch ban appears to be going well.

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Speaker 1: This is according to police figures. It's only been what

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Speaker 1: has it been three months since the band came into place,

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Speaker 1: and since then police have laid just over three thousand charges.

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Speaker 1: They've seized over seventy it was about seventy firearms, and

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Speaker 1: they've seized a total of seventy six patches. So Chris

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Speaker 1: Carhill is the president of the Police Association, He's got

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Speaker 1: up early for us. Good morning, dear Chris, Good morning Andrew.

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Speaker 1: Ten thousand patch gang members in this country, seventy six

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Speaker 1: patches confiscated. Did we only catch the stupid ones?

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Speaker 2: Well, no, it's actually that the gangs complied with the

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Speaker 2: law a lot better than probably anyone anticipated. Really. I

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Speaker 2: think they realized very quickly that if they wear their patch,

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Speaker 2: they're going to lose it permanently, and if they police

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Speaker 2: don't act immediately, because they might be safe too many

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Speaker 2: gang members, et cetera. Police will turn up with a

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Speaker 2: search forum the next morning, and that's where they've been

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Speaker 2: getting the good results with all the firearms, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: So compliance has been really good.

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Speaker 1: Do we underestimate the gang's intelligence and organization?

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Speaker 2: I think we have to be careful that just because

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Speaker 2: we're not seen in the public with their patches, they're

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Speaker 2: not still continuing to commit their crime. And that's sort

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Speaker 2: of a separate issue for police that they've got to

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Speaker 2: continue their large scale organized crime investigations. But from a

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Speaker 2: public perspective, you're not seeing these gang members patched up

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Speaker 2: in the street, and that's a good thing.

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Speaker 1: Ye, that's a good vibe. But we're here to fight crime.

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Speaker 1: Is this fighting crime enough?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a different way of doing it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's important that you're feeling safe

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Speaker 2: is sometimes just as important as has been safe. And

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Speaker 2: when the public are out there, they're at the cafes

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Speaker 2: that are in the main street and they're not seeing

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Speaker 2: the groups of patched members. That makes them feel safer.

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Speaker 2: But certainly police still have to keep up those operations.

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Speaker 2: In the fact they've laid three thousand charges for different

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Speaker 2: types of offenses says that they're still doing that.

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Speaker 1: Of course, I ended up behind a gang convoy the

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Speaker 1: other day on Straight Higway too, and there were no patches,

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Speaker 1: that's for sure, But there were a lot of white

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Speaker 1: T shirts that were a lot of black leather jerkins

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Speaker 1: who was obviously the Harley Davidson's and they all seem

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Speaker 1: to have a bandanna and one or the other of

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Speaker 1: their pockets. So they've just moved on to a different

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Speaker 1: way of signifying their presence, haven't they.

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Speaker 2: To a degree though, I think if you talk to

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Speaker 2: the public and police here that saying it feels safer

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Speaker 2: not seeing the big patches where they use them to intimidate,

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Speaker 2: it is making a difference. I think the long term

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Speaker 2: will will it actually reduce gang numbers? I think that's

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Speaker 2: something that's going to take a while to understand.

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Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. My final question is how long will this

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Speaker 1: remain effective? Because we only got seventy six out of

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Speaker 1: ten thousand, and so, as I said at the beginning,

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Speaker 1: they were the stupid ones. The smart ones are going

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Speaker 1: to get away from the patch, and as we saw

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Speaker 1: on the Tellyla, people are going to say there was

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Speaker 1: a gang member there, who say, well, you're going to

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Speaker 1: see a whole lot more facial tattoos. So the question

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Speaker 1: is how long will the gang pat rules remain effective

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Speaker 1: in shaking the tree to find the other crimes?

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Speaker 2: Well, that is you know, time will be the one

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Speaker 2: that clearly tells that I think, but you know the fact,

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Speaker 2: there's been three thousand charges, so it says it's been

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Speaker 2: pretty effective at the moment in keeping the setting that

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Speaker 2: control over the gangs. Everything will adapt and police will

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Speaker 2: have to adapt as well. But I still think I'd

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Speaker 2: rather see streets without those gang patches on them than

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Speaker 2: what we had oh prior to that. Oh.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, don't get me wrong. I'm behind the gang patch.

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Speaker 1: It has been great. It has given a bit of

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Speaker 1: vibe around the place. I thank you for your comments.

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Speaker 1: Chris Carhill for the Police Association President. For more from

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Speaker 1: earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio.