NSW: Guards' guns ending up in thieves' hands

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2003
NSW: Guards' guns ending up in thieves' hands

By Alex Wilson

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - Anybody who keeps watch on a city street corner or in a shopping
mall for long enough can learn the routine of security guards delivering cash.

Armed guards transporting money to or from ATMs or banks are a common feature of city
life and play an important role, greasing the wheels of commerce.

But a recent spate of robberies has shown that criminals brazen enough to confront
these guards can walk away with thousands of dollars - and, more often than not, a few
guns.

In NSW, where police are running a vigorous campaign to get guns off the streets, there
is concern that all too often security guards are handing weapons to the other team.

On Wednesday, two Armaguard employees were robbed of thousands of dollars and two Smith
and Wesson pistols in a crowded central Sydney shopping centre.

More than 80 handguns have been stolen from Sydney security companies in the past four months.

On at least four occasions, thieves have confronted armed guards on the street and
fled with their weapons.

And three times they have forced guards to open armories at security firms and made
off with large numbers of guns.

Samantha Lee from the National Coalition For Gun Control said a handgun could fetch
up to $1,000 on the black market, and thieves were now targeting security operations for
their weapons.

She called for the government to consider banning security guards from carrying handguns.

"Thieves know that handguns are now hot currency on the illegal market and so anyone
carrying a handgun is going to be a potential target," she said.

NSW Police Minister John Watkins said the government had just introduced new regulations
clarifying the circumstances in which guards could carry guns.

"We are going to make every security company justify its use of weapons," he said.

Mr Watkins said the public had a right to be concerned about the flow of guns to criminals.

"The people of NSW are fed up with hand gun crime, they are fed up with guns leaving
the security industry."

But Armaguard national security manager Bob Bruce said the industry was being used
as a scapegoat and the real problem was a failure by police and government to deal with
armed robbers.

"The cause is all these lawless people that are roaming the streets of Sydney robbing
and shooting at will and the industry is concerned at what is being done," he said.

Robbers taking guns from "cash in transit" (CIT) crews were after money not guns, he said.

Mr Bruce said thieves often ditched guns because they could be traced back to them,
linking them to the crime.

CIT crews needed the guns for protection, as did night patrol guards working alone
under dangerous circumstances, he said.

Law and crime expert associate Professor Rick Sarre of the University of South Australia
agrees that handguns for guards can be justified for transporting large amounts of cash.

But he said lone guards patrolling at night should not carry weapons.

"All the evidence points to the fact that security guards would be less safe with guns," he said.

It was easy to follow a security guard's routine and then to attack him and take his
gun, he said.

In response to the recent string of robberies, and the latest incident on Wednesday,
some CIT guards from Chubb this week walked off the job, complaining their safety was
not being taken seriously.

Transport Workers Union spokesman Scott Connolly said the union wanted more guards
to go out on jobs, and were angry WorkCover had not investigated the risk to their safety.

He said unmarked surveillance cars following armoured cars were once commonplace, but
had become rare in recent years, leaving guards more vulnerable.

But the real issue, according to Armaguard's Bob Bruce, is the failure of police to
bring armed robbery under control.

Arrests of robbers of security guards were few and far between, he said.

"The last one turned up in a park dead, and another one gave himself up," he said.

"But apart from those two, I can't recall any of these people ever being apprehended
by the police."

AAP apw/sd/drp/de

KEYWORD: GUARDS (AAP BACKGROUNDER)

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