A DALYELLUP family who say their lives were threatened at the Bunbury Wildlife Park on Sunday fear there are not enough police resources to keep Greater Bunbury safe.
But Bunbury Police acting superintendent Geoff Stewart said local resources were not only meeting demand, but cutting down on the city’s crime rate.
Mari Quinn has told police she and her family were attacked by another group while enjoying a kick of the footy at the park about 3pm on April 13.
Mrs Quinn said the trouble began when a young boy started a verbal argument with her four-year-old son and she moved in to tell the boy to leave him alone.
She says the boy lunged at her and three other children aged between about six and 16 mobbed her children and her husband.
Mrs Quinn said she was forced to allow her children to be locked in strangers’ cars to get them out of harm’s way while she and her husband tried to fend off the attackers.
“The two adults in the group would not let us leave and said they were going to bring back guns and shoot us,” she said.
“We called the police over and over again, as did the bystanders, but no one arrived for more than 40 minutes.”
The family was finally able to reach their car and return to Dalyellup and police attended their home about half an hour later.
South West MLC Adele Farina said police resources across the Greater Bunbury region were stretched to breaking point and based on feedback from the community, response times were less than satisfactory.
“Our dedicated police officers do a great job within the limited resources available to them, but they cannot be expected to meet growing law and order demands of our community without an increase in police numbers,” Ms Farina said.
But Acting Superintendent Stewart said adequate resources were part of the reason crime had been reduced so significantly over the past twelve months.
He said planning for the future anticipated growth of Greater Bunbury was part of the WA Police business plan.