ICE-FUELLED rampages are putting drug users, police and the community at serious risk and taking vital resources away from where they are needed.
Bunbury Police are frustrated that their officers are becoming tied up for hours dealing with drug-affected individuals and sometimes getting hurt in the process.
Last Tuesday night, August 25, a police officer was sliced with his own knife while trying to control a woman outside the Vat 2 restaurant on Jetty Road.
The woman was believed to be under the influence of methamphetamine.
According to police, the woman managed to take a knife from the officer’s belt before attempting to stab and cut him.
The officer received cuts to his fingers and a bite to the arm.
The woman was taken to the police station and allegedly continued to fight officers.
Paramedics were called to sedate her before she could be taken to hospital.
“When people go into a drug-fuelled rage, they are a danger to themselves and everyone around them,” Bunbury Police acting officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Ron Patchett said.
“In this case an officer ended up in hospital for treatment, another one had to stay with him and help with paperwork, an ambulance and paramedics were called to sedate her – in the end, you have one person who has tied up about six emergency services personnel.
“What if someone is out there having a heart attack or needing police assistance and we can’t attend because of one person having a drugs episode?”
Collie Police charged a 44-year-old man after he went on an alleged naked drug-fuelled rampage armed with an axe through the town on Saturday night, destroying bowsers at a service station and terrifying a local family.
WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan and police minister Liza Harvey will host a community crime forum in Bunbury tonight, inviting residents to raise their most pressing concerns.
Senior Sergeant Patchett said the drug scourge was impacting communities right across the South West and he believed it would be a major topic for discussion at the forum.
“I think the drugs issue will be a big one because it has far-reaching flow-on impacts – stolen cars, shoplifting, burglaries, health issues,” he said.
The free event will be held at the Sanctuary Golf Resort on Wednesday, September 2 from 6pm to 7.30pm.
