Uralla Police Numbers
URALLA POLICE NUMBERS
Mr CHAPPELL (Northern Tablelands) [4.52 p.m.]: I refer to effective policing numbers in my electorate. Last week Uralla Shire Council was advised by the local area commander that one of the town’s four police officers is to be permanently transferred to another town: I do not mean only the person, I mean the position. Therefore, a four-person station will be reduced to a three-person station. To give a little of the background, in September last year I alerted the community to the fact that as a result of the police royal commission a number of policing positions had been recategorised and taken out of the ranks of general duties policing. On 1 September last year I wrote to the Minister.
For example, as a result of the police royal commission a number of police officers have been reclassified as duty officers, community safety officers, district antitheft squad officers, and drug unit officers. There are all sorts of new positions.
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When those positions were announced I checked with the local area commander and contacted the Minister’s office to make sure that these new positions would be additional and would not be filled at the expense of general duties police officers. The first advice I received was that general duties police numbers would not be reduced in any community, but in fact that is what happened. Consequently, the Uralla position was shunted to Tamworth, where the officer and the position have been attached to the drug unit that services the region. I am not complaining about that. I understand why specialist units are needed in the Police Service.
However, as the honourable member for Bathurst, who is in the Chair, would well know, country communities as well as city and suburban communities need general duty police officers who can respond to domestic violence calls, break and enters and traffic accidents. Officers are needed who can do community policing work, but they are not available. As a consequence of these decisions it is difficult for regional and local area commanders to staff their patrols. I know they are doing their best, but they are gravely worried about the position.
Individual police officers at the local level do their best to cope. If they are asked after a heavy weekend why it took so long to respond to a certain call, they will say they cannot be in three or four places at once. They say that sometimes it takes the rest of the shift and a large part of the next shift to mop up after a particular incident, that is, finish the paperwork and look after the villains that they have apprehended. Consequently, not enough police are available to do the normal jobs. Officers who have been promoted to those new positions tend to work from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Because they are no longer attached to the general duties list; they go home to their families when they have finished their shifts. That leaves the patrols short. There are simply not enough police to walk the beat or respond to car accidents or other incidents.
In addition, the northern area command has a particular problem. Of all the police districts in the State the northern area command has the highest number of officers on long-term sick leave. At present the occupants of more than 50 positions are on long-term sick leave. Therefore, those officers are not available. When that number of officers is taken out of the police stations across the region, which are already seriously pressed for manpower, there are simply not enough police officers to go around. Those stations may be able to operate under those constraints for a certain period but they cannot continue indefinitely. The result of the decision to create these newfangled police positions, important as they may be, is that at the end of the day towns such as Uralla cop it in the neck. They simply do not have enough police to do the job. In fact, while Uralla still had the four positions, police from Uralla and Guyra were called to Armidale. I know officers from smaller towns are also called in to Dubbo and Moree and all the major towns. The simple fact of the matter is that there are not enough officers to do what general duties police are supposed to do: serve the community.
Mr FACE (Charlestown - Minister for Gaming and Racing, and Minister Assisting the Premier on Hunter Development) [4.56 p.m.]: I take on board what the honourable member for Northern Tablelands has said, and I will refer his remarks to the Minister for Police.