THE Police Association of NSW has welcomed the commitment to build a new police station in the Shoalhaven Local Area Command but questioned how it would be manned.
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“We are pleased to see progress for local policing and for the Shoalhaven community, however we need more police, not just bricks and mortar,” said local Police Association branch official, Doug Nyholm.
“The end result must be to get more police out into the community.
“The Shoalhaven LAC is one of the priority areas where police officers are overextended and additional resources are required.”
The announcement comes as the Shoalhaven Branch of the association has called for a significant and urgent increase in officers.
In a staffing submission the local branch wants an 47 additional officers for the Shoalhaven across a broad range of positions.
“At present, Huskisson Police Station is only staffed 20 hours per day and quite often police are called up to Nowra to assist with the workload,” Mr Nyholm said.
“We need additional police to actually cater for the amount of crime in the area, especially in some of the outlying villages and towns where it can take up to an hour to drive back. That effects the time it takes for a police car to respond.
“This leaves the Shoalhaven under-resourced.
“What we need to see is the new station being staffed 24/7 and sufficient police numbers to enable this.
“We don’t want to see officers being taken from neighbouring stations to achieve this.
“Extra resources are required because of the geographical nature of the area.”
He said there had been an increase in serious crimes such as armed robberies and ram raids, and the prevalence of ice (methamphetamine) in the area was a growing concern.
“More police officers on the beat and available to staff the new station will help to reduce crime and provide the police presence the community and local police have repeatedly called for,” he said.
“Local police are at breaking point and the Shoalhaven community is suffering due to a lack of police numbers.
“Our 2015 pre-election submission highlights it should be a realistic expectation for the people of NSW that, as the total population of the state increases, the proportion of police numbers should increase at the same rate.
“The government now needs to commit to delivering general duties officers, detectives and supervisors to staff the new police station and further support police in protecting the people of NSW.”
