A GROUP of Ravenswood residents say police are unfairly targeting their suburb.
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They have organised a meeting next week where they will discuss what they say is the issuing of ``easy'' speed fines in their suburb by police and a push for fines to be more fairly aligned to income.
However, police say they do not target areas based on demographics.
A pamphlet for the meeting says that ``getting a $200 fine when you're on the dole is unfair, compared to getting a $200 fine when you're working and getting $1200 in wages''.
``We would like to see if we could make things more fair and are holding a meeting to discuss income-based fines, the police targeting our community for easy fines, imprisonment for overdue fines and police harassment in our community,'' it says.
Ravenswood Neighbourhood House manager Jenny Gee said the meeting, to be held at the neighbourhood house on Thursday, would be used to gather information.
``This has been a live issue this year and there have been concerns for a very long time across Australia in regards to . . . proportionality in regards to fines,'' she said.
``We live in a community where people earn less income than other suburbs and we feel sometimes we're targeted unduly in regards to that.
``We need a very positive relationship with our police force and we don't want anything to harm that relationship.
``And an over-targeting, if that indeed exists, is a problem, so we wish to have a public meeting to explore this.''
Acting Inspector Jason Jones said last night that police did not target areas because of demographics.
``If we get information of people speeding in a particular area, we will give it attention,'' he said.
``The police don't make the fines, but they enforce them. The simple fact is if they don't want to get a ticket they need to stop committing those offences.''
Reaction in the suburb was mixed yesterday.
While some agreed fines should match ability to pay and did not feel police targeted Ravenswood, others said that there needed to be a larger police presence in the area, and changing the fines structure would be unfair.
However, Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns said that there was some logic in the meeting.
``There has been much merit in the suggestion that has been made that there should be a capacity to levy fines in accordance with a person's capacity to pay,'' Mr Barns said.
``The difficulty with mandatory minimal penalties is that it leads to unfairness, be that jail terms or fines, so you find many people on low incomes have no hope of paying fines and are consistently being chased by the Monetary Penalties Enforcement Service, which is costing the taxpayer an enormous amount of money to chase money they'll never get.''
Launceston MLC Ivan Dean also agreed there was merit in the fines argument.
``The impact is 1000 per cent more severe on those not earning a strong income,'' Mr Dean said.