For­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has urged law­mak­ers not to aban­don the pro­posed Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs), warn­ing that the de­ci­sion risks giv­ing crim­i­nals “the up­per hand” and un­der­min­ing pub­lic safe­ty.

He ad­dressed the coun­try, in­clud­ing Op­po­si­tion and In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors, in a me­dia re­lease in which he de­scribed the re­jec­tion of ZOSO as “a grave and deeply con­se­quen­tial er­ror in judge­ment”.

Grif­fith said he was not speak­ing as a politi­cian or ad­vanc­ing any par­ty agen­da, but draw­ing on “decades of ex­pe­ri­ence, train­ing, and ser­vice in law en­force­ment and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty at the high­est lev­els”.