Sydney Police anti-riot unit launched

An anti-riot police unit was unveiled in Sydney today with 46 officers trained to respond to public disorder at a moment’s notice.

The launch of the unit follows recommendations from the Coburn Report into the Redfern riots earlier this year, which suggested training NSW police officers to handle riots, protests and crowd control.

NSW Police Minister John Watkins said there was a need for a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, Operational Support Group (OSG) trained unit available for public order incidents.

The anti-riot officers have been taken from the Vikings Street Crime Unit, which was started 12 months ago to combat crime hotspots with high visibility policing.”