The New South Wales government has thought up a new way to decrease the workload of it's police force - and at the same time elevate crime to the status of revenue raising.
A whole range of crimes - which will include shop lifting to a value of under $ 300, fraud, possession of stolen goods, breaking into a vehicle and stealing, offensive conduct or language - and obstructing traffic - will now be subject to an on the spot fine.
No longer will police have to take the offender to the police station, fill out reams of paperwork - and then spent hours in court waiting to give evidence in the dock. The savings are estimated at 56,000 police hours a year.
The down side is that these on the spot crimes will not result in a criminal record. Basically, crime will be decriminalized and reduced to the same status as a speeding ticket. The offender will have twenty-one days to pay and the fines will range from $ 150 to $ 350 - putting a set value on various levels of crime.
It is a master stroke for state treasury. At present police dread the time and paperwork involved in charging an offender - and in many cases simply issue a caution to avoid this work load.
An on the spot fine is the easy way out - and without a doubt pressure will be applied to the police to zealously issue fines to improve revenue raising - in the same way that the use of speed cameras in police hands are being used to fund state coffers - all in the name of road safety !
The government and the police deny that there are quotas for officers to meet but any fool knows that an officer who returned from his shift with an empty charge book - because he was using cautions to educate drivers rather than fine them - would be accused of putting in his day on the beach or at the pub - and swiftly relegated to other duties.
Watch out for the cop on the beat with a desperate look in his eye and a need to write a few infringement notices before his shift ends.
It seems that this Criminal Infringement Notice System ( CINS ) is simply a new form of taxation.
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