Asia-Pacific News
Police to lose mobile phones in budget cuts in Australian state
Dec 2, 2011, 1:50 GMT
Sydney - Police in the Australian island state of Tasmania are to be ordered to surrender their mobile phones and might have to catch taxis to crime scenes because of budget cuts.
The state government cut the police department's budget by 8 million Australian dollars (8.2 million US dollars) and senior police told Hobart's Mercury newspaper Friday that police walking a beat would have to hand over their mobile phones by January 1.
Only those ranked inspector and above would have police-issued phones.
Officers said they would have to use their own phones when on patrol or chasing suspects. They said they might have to catch taxis to crime scenes because the number of police cars was also being slashed.
'This is ridiculous,' one officer told the Mercury. 'What's next, our guns?'
Police union president Randolph Wierenga said police often used phones for important messages because their outdated analogue police radios could be listened into by the very criminals they were chasing.
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