WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

8pm – 8.30pm
Inside Australia (PG)

Policing the Pacific - Part 1: Dave's New Beat

This four-part series details the adventures and challenges that Australian Federal Police encounter in their quest to bring justice and peace to the islands of the Pacific traumatized by civil war. This series follows several Australian Federal Agents deployed to the Solomon Islands, where they patrol the streets of the capital Honiara, the remote and dangerous Weather Coast and outer islands that rarely, if ever, see law enforcement. Tonight's episode follows Australian Federal Agent Dave Elsonk, who is nearing the end of his 18-month tour of duty as a community constable in the Solomon's remote outer islands. He patrols the Weather Coast, an area that looks like paradise. However, until 2003 this area was a battleground for warring tribes in a four-year cycle of revenge killings, rapes, murders and village raids.

What night mate?

Wednesday nights, continuing for the next 3 weeks.
Inside Australia - SBS

Policing the Pacific
Episode 1- Dave’s New Beat
8:00pm, Wednesday 17 January, 2007

Australian Federal Agent Dave Elson patrols the Weather Coast, an area that looks like paradise, but until 2003, this area was a battleground for warring tribes in a four-year cycle of revenge killings, rapes, murders and village raids. Also part of the RAMSI project, Papua New Guinean police officer Maggie Babate is Dave’s boss. Together they visit remote villages on foot, including the now arrested militia leader Harold Keke’s stronghold, educating people on the future of the Solomon.

Dave and Maggie aim to break down the deep-seated fear the people harbour, encouraging them to talk to the police so that community and broader issues can be resolved through the legal system, rather than traditional justice practices.

Episode 2 - Dead Man’s Tale
8:00pm, Wednesday 24 January, 2007

Australian Federal Agent Paul Chambers travels to a remote island to exhume the body of pastor Cederic Hairiu so that cause of death can be determined and his family and community can finally put him to rest.

Meanwhile, Sydney Federal Agent Adam Stuart is involved in monitoring the Solomon Islands environment which is exploited for its forestry and fisheries. He visits logging companies clear-felling forests to ensure that the companies are operating with proper permits. He also visits an export company that sends clown fish to the Australian aquarium market, noting that due to the popularity of films such as Finding Nemo, these life-paired fish will have to face a future without their partners. To get these fish, locals sometimes blast the reef, destroying it for a pittance compared to the money the exporters and resellers earn.

Episode 3 - The Disillusionment of Patrick Veitch
8:00pm, Wednesday 31 January, 2007

Melbourne Federal Agent Patrick Veitch teaches the Solomon Island police what he has learned on Melbourne’s streets, but with the national elections there are surprises in store for Patrick.

After 12 years as a Federal Agent he is seven weeks into his mission in Honiara, where, along with other Pacific police, he is helping local police build their skills and policing knowledge. In return Patrick and his Australian colleagues need to understand and work through cultural barriers and the tensions of a population fed up with corruption.

As riots emerge on the streets of Honiara and the Australian Federal Police arrest the politician, recently made Prime Minister, the need for law and order in the Solomon Islands becomes even more important.

Episode 4 - Dili’s New Street Cops
12:00AM, Wednesday 7 February, 2007

Australian Federal Agent Dave Elson, who we met on the Weather Coast of the Solomon Islands in Episode One, is now deployed to East Timor. Agent Danielle Woodward, from Melbourne, is on her second tour of duty to East Timor, which is part of the broader Australia Asia Pacific Regional Assistance Mission. She wants to extend dialogue as a means of managing the violence. She impressed on the locals that they need to call the police rather than take action into their own hands when trouble arises. She hopes to get warring gangs to engage in dialogue rather than the tit for tat violence that is commonplace.

Meanwhile Dave finds working in East Timor more highly pressured compared to his experience in the Solomon Islands. In the Solomons he made one arrest in 18 months. In East Timor he averages five per day as the gang violence since independence and the departure of the Indonesian police force continues.