ACT Policing has defended its decision to release information about crimes to the public months after they occurred, saying it will only go public when victims allow it or when all other avenues of investigation are exhausted.
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During annual report hearings on Wednesday, Liberal MLA Giulia Jones pointed to three recent appeals, where the crime had taken place significantly prior to police going public.
On November 11, police release footage of CCTV footage after an aggravated robbery at a petrol station in November that happened on February 23.
On November 8 police released CCTV stills of three people suspected of throwing eggs at the Gan Yisroel Jewish Childcare and Community Centre in Giralang on May 12.
ACT Policing urged anyone with information about the vandalism attack to come forward but blurred the faces of the alleged assailants.
Then on November 13 another police appeal asked the public to help identify a man who defrauded the owner of a lost wallet of $1300 on September 28.
"Why does it take 46, 180 or even 261 days to get information out to the public seeking their advice? Is this ideal? And what do you hope to achieve in this area," Mrs Jones asked.
"I think people want to know why pixelated images are meant to assist the public in identifying people. Can you appreciate why members of the Giralang community are disappointed with what seems like a very slow response to something which was really frightening for them?"
New Chief Police Officer Ray Johnson, in his first appearance at an ACT parliamentary hearing, said while he'd have to look at the specific cases, there were several reasons why police would not go public straight away.
"[It might] mean we actually think ... we know who the offender is or are trying to protect some element of evidence that not going public might help us do," Chief Police Officer Johnson said.
"The victim might prefer that not be a path that we choose, so there's a number of reasons why time might pass before we seek public assistance around a particular matter.
"It might mean all avenues of inquiry have been exhausted over a period of time, and the last one we're left with is public assistance."
Chief Police Officer Johnson said it was his position that police engage with the public "as early and as reasonably as possible".
"We are pretty quick on the vast majority of matters to try and get the information into the community and seek assistance so I'll have to have a look at those particular ones," Chief Police Officer Johnson said.
The Chabad ACT synagogue has been the target of hate crimes in the past, with a playground nearby vandalised with swastika graffiti last year.
Rabbi Shmueli Feldman told Fairfax Media at the time there had been double the number of anti-semitic incidents in the three months leading up to the attack than in the previous year.
ACT Policing was mocked on social media when it released the pixelated images last week, calling for members of the public to call Crimestoppers if they knew the suspects involved in the Giralang vandalism attack.
"It's the dreaded pixel gang," one Twitter user said.
"Blurry McBlurryface and his brother Blurrier McBlurryface?" another added.
