ACT Policing has a new weapon in the fight against illegal firearms, drugs and other materials ordered to be destroyed, with an industrial shredder installed at its Exhibit Management Centre in Mitchell.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Mick Gentleman said the shredder would streamline the process of destroying firearms, drug grow-house equipment, exhibits no longer required for court, and other items that needed to be destroyed under court order.
Mr Gentleman said the shredder was purchased after an officer at the Exhibit Management Centre highlighted inefficiencies and safety issues in the previous manual processes followed by police.
“Prior to the installation of this shredder, on a good day, one ACT Policing officer could maybe destroy 50 firearms,” Mr Gentleman said.
“This machine can easily do that many in less than 10 minutes.”
He said in addition, by removing the use of manually operated cutting tools and hammers, the destruction process will be carried out with greater safety and there will be flow-on savings in maintenance.
Mr Gentleman said the shredder had the capacity to destroy 95 per cent of property identified for destruction, including firearms.
“The use of the shredder will free up many hours of police time that was previously expended on the manual destruction of these items, using potentially dangerous tools such as plasma cutters and large hammers,” the Minister said.
“ACT Policing will also experience considerable savings when disposing of items after destruction.”
Mr Gentleman said the need for secure burial will be greatly reduced, due to the more comprehensive destruction the shredder can perform, compared with what an officer can do by hand.
