“STOP asking me for a police station in Capel – I don’t want it to happen and you shouldn’t either.”
This was the message from WA police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan during a visit to Bunbury on Friday.
Capel residents have campaigned for their own police station for years with reports of an increased crime rate and slow police response times.
But the commissioner said it was not practical.
“If you build a new police station you need people in it to run it,” he said.
“Bunbury has one police station and a better solution would be to have more officers based there to keep them on the street actually doing stuff to stop crime.
“Buildings are just walls and a roof and officers only use them as a place to get dressed in their uniform and park the cars.”
Residents met with police minister Liza Harvey in 2012 to discuss their concerns.
“You can build a station but that may not necessarily mean more effective policing,” Ms Harvey said at the time.
Shire of Capel president Murray Scott said it appeared as though the time where Capel was pushing for a police station had passed.
“Each election this topic comes to the fore and I know a number of residents were pushing to have a station here,” Mr Scott said.
“There have been more patrols in the last six to 12 months and people have been saying to me that they are seeing more police around which is easing their concerns.
“In reality it is better to have officers on our streets instead of stuck in a police station and the patrols in our area seem to be making a difference.”
Commissioner O’Callaghan also shot down talk of a 24 hour police station in Bunbury.
“People keep asking me to make the police station in Bunbury open around the clock but let me tell you, the station you have is 24 hours,” he said.
“There is no one at the counter at night but I would prefer if you were visited by us after hours to solve the problems you might have.”
The Commissioner said WA police were pushing for more self-reporting of minor crimes and were developing apps to make it easier to contact police and report small matters.
“The cost of policing in WA is $1.26 billion a year,” he said.
“At the end of the day we can’t do everything and the public must accept that – we must focus on the most important things first.”
