Northern Tasmania shootings prompt calls for dozens more police to tackle Launceston crime spike

Tasmania’s police union believes the key to helping improve the spike in firearm crimes in the state’s north is to put more officers on Launceston’s streets.

There have been 11 gun-related incidents in Launceston, which is northern Tasmania’s biggest city, in the past seven weeks and only four have been solved. 

The victim of the most recent shooting, a 52-year-old man from the suburb of Invermay, remains in a stable condition at the Launceston General Hospital.

He was shot outside his home on Thursday morning by two men who were attempting to break into his car.

Police are still searching for the two offenders who were not known to the victim.

Colin Riley, from the Police Association of Tasmania, said the crime wave in Launceston was one police needed help in handling.

“We have great confidence in our members to investigate these matters and bring them to a point of culmination, but unfortunately our members have just been under-resourced in the Launceston area historically for many, many years,” Mr Riley said.

He said under-resourcing had also led to fatigue and burnout issues which were affecting the force.

The police union has called for 70 additional officers to be immediately recruited statewide.

Mr Riley wants 33 of those to be stationed in Launceston.

“We’ve done the analysis, that’s the gap,” Mr Riley said.

“We believe that once that’s in place in Launceston, you’ll see a gradually diminishing incidents of firearm and serious crime.

“Historically, Launceston is over-represented in the crime statistics and also in victimisation rates.

“What we need to do is nip in the bud future occurrences of them and that’s linked to increasing the criminal investigation branch aspects in the Launceston area.”

Mr Riley said Launceston needed seven additional CIB investigators, eight staff in a surveillance team and six additional Serious and Organised crime investigators.

The association also wants more drug dogs in the north.

A police task force was set up in the state’s north last week to try to crack down on illegal gun use.

Warnings of ‘more mayhem’

Former northern Tasmania Police commander and retiring legislative councillor Ivan Dean said the recent wave of firearm incidents was concerning.

“There’s nothing more terrifying to the public than to have people going around willy-nilly firing firearms,” Mr Dean said.

“The longer this goes on for, the more mayhem it’s going to cause and the more likelihood we’re going to have other people doing it as well.

“The need to nip it in the bud as quickly as possible, this is why we need a full-time Special Operations Group and I’ve been appealing to the Parliament and the government for year, on year, on year to bring in a full-time operation group.”

The Tasmanian government said there already was a full-time SOG squad in Tasmania and that more officers were being recruited.

But Mr Dean said SOGs teams needed to be set up in Launceston, not just the state’s capital, Hobart. 

“The other morning when this [shooting] happened, the Special Operations Group should have been on the ground within a very, very short time,” Mr Dean said.

“Had they been on the ground in a very short time, it may well have been brought to an end.

“You can’t allow this to continue to happen because someone is going to get killed and that’s going to be a tragic end to this whole thing.” 

Mayor calls on public to help

On the streets of Launceston, many residents said while they were not frightened by the recent rise of firearm incidents, they did find it concerning.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten described the recent rise in gun violence as “disturbing” and said it was the “worst” he had seen it in years.

“There’s definitely concern in the community and there’s definitely disappointment in the community to think that some of our people would be doing this,” he said.

Alderman van Zetten said the public needed to help police solve the situation.

“We don’t want to see this growing in our community,” he said.

“It’s time to not just pretend and hide away from the facts, if you know of somebody who has been involved in this in any shape or form, please help the police and their enquires, so we can get on top of it.”