BUNBURY will have 38 new police officers who form part of an election promise to employ an extra 550 police across WA.
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There will be 26 general duty police officers, nine detectives and specialist auxiliary officers coming down to the region next year and is the largest increase in police numbers to the South West in well over a decade.
Minister for Police Liza Harvey said it was part of the plan to support the rapid growth of the region and combat crime.
A public police forum was held at the Sanctuary Golf Resort on Wednesday, September 2 and was an opportunity for members of the community to raise issues with Minister Harvey, West Australian commission of Police Karl O’Callaghan and Bunbury Police officers.
Since 2013 there has been an increase of 1150 police officers in Western Australia.
The forum addressed the need to make services available for young people in areas like Treendale and Dalyellup.
“We will have a specialist youth liaison officer to help engage with the younger generations as the population continues to grow,” Minister Harvey said.
“There is currently $10 million which has been allocated to the PCYC for them to implement programs across the state, I am waiting for the business plan and I am excited to see what they do with the money.”
Mr O’Callaghan said it was quite clear that ice is driving crime and violence.
“Meth is not a new problem, in 2009 there was a shift from general use to commercial use and we are looking at the supply side of reduction now,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“The difficulty is the usage rate because that has alarmingly stayed unchanged.
“It is not just police responsibility, we need education, therapy, rehab and intervention.
“When you start on a journey like this it doesn’t happen overnight and locking people up is good but it won’t solve the problem.”
Ms Harvey said the Turning Point program aimed to stop people reoffending and putting it in place in the prison to reduce the risk of reoffending.
She said many prisoners they have little literacy and numeracy skills which made it harder to get a job, so delivering programs in prison was a good starting point to help them become useful citizens of society.
Mr O’Callaghan said the region was known as the events capital of WA and the police needed to provide a surge capacity for the influx of people when events took place.
He said this came with its special set of challenges and the demands were different to the issues metropolitan police were handling.
“We look at what’s driving crime and understand what’s driving the business of what we do,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“Bunbury ranks as one of the highest for supply and demand and 38 police officers since 2000 is a significant increase.
“It is about increasing the capacity of the police currently on the street.”
He said it was about being smarter in the way they worked and using the CTTV footage to work together with the City of Bunbury to combat crime.