Northern Beaches MPs Rob Stokes and Jonathan O’Dea have called on the NSW Labor Government to provide more police on the northern peninsula as new statistics reveal police numbers have slumped dramatically since 2003.
According to official police statistics, police numbers for the Northern Beaches Local Area Command have fallen more than 10% over the past 5 years.
From a high of 208 in 2003 the numbers have plummeted by 25 to just 183 officers in October 2008.
The ‘actual strength’ of 183 also includes police officers away on sick leave, stress leave, maternity leave and extended leave, so the number of officers available for work will be even lower.
“The dramatic reduction in police numbers for the Northern Beaches Local Area Command leaves local residents more exposed to all kinds of crime, including underage and binge drinking, graffiti and malicious damage”, Jonathan O’Dea said.
“The LAC covers a population of around 200,000 and it is ridiculous to leave this enormous job to just 183 police.
“Our local officers do an outstanding job under constant pressure and should not have the additional pressure of short staffing,” Mr O’Dea said.
“The riot squad was called to incidents in Pittwater on 36 occasions in 2008,” said Rob Stokes.
“Surely if we had increased police numbers in our local police stations and on our local streets, they would be able to identify and diffuse ugly situations before the riot squad is called to clean up the mess”, he said.
“The reduction of 25 officers for the Northern Beaches at a time when the State Government has encouraged more people to live in the area, is typical of Labor’s inept management and lack of appropriate planning,” Mr Stokes concluded.
