THE NSW police force is seriously understaffed and urgently needs another 3,000 officers if it is to tackle soaring crime rates, a report recently warned
THE NSW police force is seriously understaffed and urgently needs another 3,000 officers if it is to tackle soaring crime rates, a report recently warned.
Released by the NSW Police Association, the report found police numbers in NSW stand at only one officer for every 440 people – well below international standards of one officer for every 300 people.
The report also predicted the police force simply could not maintain its numbers in the current climate.
“As the workload increases to impossible levels, more and more police are leaving policing, either through medical retirement or resignation,”it found.
In 2005, almost 400 officers were medically retired. Approximately 300 resigned, but only 62 made it to retirement. At the same time, only 696 new probationers joined the NSW police force.
Terrorism and legislative developments are also making the job of police officers more and more complex – requiring more time off frontline duties for adequate training.
“The modern post 9/11 world is placing heavy demands on police as they struggle to provide not only the day-to-day policing services that the public expect but also to ensure NSW is free from external threats of terrorism and internal crime of racial and ethnic tensions and violence,”the report said.
NSW Police Association president Bob Pritchard said the top priority should be to increase numbers of frontline police.
“Our argument for 3,000 is not an ambit claim, this is the minimum we believe is needed to redress the serious shortfall in officers that has been created by the changes identified in this report – as well as the increases in both the number and social diversity of our population.”
However, NSW Police Minister Carl Scully dismissed Pritchard’s comments, claiming that NSW already has one of the largest police forces in the English-speaking world.
“We have raised authorised numbers to a record high of 14,454. In actual terms, we currently have more officers than this in NSW,” he said.
“The state government has also invested heavily in modern crime-fighting technologies, particularly advanced forensic equipment. This has cut down considerably the number of hours police spend examining things like bullet fragments and other records.”
