bikie gang violence..police need to negotiate with the bikers

PM - Bikie gang violence may spread

Professor Arthur Vino (phonetic), the Director of the Centre for Police and Justice Studies at Monash University, says regardless of the cause of this morning's shootings bikie violence is escalating, and he says police talking to police and next month's Police Ministers' meeting won't solve the problem because police need to negotiate directly with motorcycle clubs.

ARTHUR VINO: That's what we're looking at, is the negotiation of a peaceful settlement. I mean, the police have had information that indicated that problems are on the way, and it is time - you know, it is time to start being pro-active about that information.

LACHLAN PARKER: Are you saying so far police haven't adequately acted on the information they've had?

ARTHUR VINO: The problem is that the style of policing is incorrect. The intelligence has been gathered but the actions taken haven't helped the situation.

LACHLAN PARKER: Commissioner Mal Hyde dismisses the criticism.

MAL HYDE: Well, I'd like to see specifically what he has in mind, but quite clearly this is not a mother's club activity where you can get together and talk to people and have a nice time and come to a peaceful resolution. We're talking about people here with a very strong propensity to violent behaviour between themselves, as I indicated earlier, they want to resolve their differences with violence, and we do talk to the clubs from time to time. For instance, during August there were 68 occasions where our Operation Avatar went to club premises and spoke to various club members, so we do talk to them, but if you imagine that you could sit around and peacefully negotiate out and resolve these differences, I think you're deluding yourself.

COMPERE: South Australian Police Commissioner, Mal Hyde, ending that report from Lachlan Parker in Adelaide.

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