Today the State Government backed down from plans to relocate the Mounted Operations Unit to Park 21 in the Adelaide Parklands. A move strongly welcomed by the SA Greens.
Quotes attributable to Greens Police Spokesperson, Tammy Franks MLC:
“The Greens welcome this common sense announcement today. The idea that Mounted Operations needed to remain in the CBD was a nonsense and the Adelaide Parklands should have never been considered for office buildings and barbed wire fenced compounds”.
“Proximity to Adelaide Airport should always have been an option. It has worked in Victoria when the Southbank barracks became untenable in the modern era. If Victorian police horses can be managed from outside the CBD it seemed odd the Commissioner previously insisted ours could not.
“The Malinauskas government approach used here of ‘declare and defend’ a decision of the Police Commissioner made without public consultation or transparency was a failure of leadership.
“The possible locations for this SAPOL unit should have never been kept secret from the public and it is disturbing that the SAPOL Commissioner has still yet to comply with the Ombudsman’s direction to release documents identified by FOI on this issue.
“South Australians have had enough of this secrecy. SAPOL and the Malinauskas Government must adopt a policy of deliberate and decide not declare and defend if they want to keep public trust. That trust was sorely tested in the past six months with this flawed process.