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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 U.S.) and senior police told Hobart’s Mercury newspaper today that police walking a beat would have to hand over their mobile phones by Jan. 1.
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?”
