What about country
policing?
A deliberately strong focus on members who serve in country
locations is just part of the Police Association’s current staffing and
resourcing campaign.
Seven-hundred members (124 female, 581 male) currently serve
in locations commonly defined as rural and remote.
Filling country vacancies within SAPOL has, in recent years,
emerged as increasingly difficult.
Economic, social, human-resource and industrial issues are,
among others, responsible for this, and must be addressed as a matter of
priority.
SAPOL’s failure to adequately staff country areas has
further compounded the difficulties associated with country policing.
That it took the Premier’s task force to identify the
need for a relieving pool for country locations is indeed extraordinary. We
have, in recent years, seen police station staff go unrelieved for long
periods.
We have also seen police officers from other stations used to
cover vacant stations.
Larger country patrol bases, too, have gone inadequately
staffed. If the Police Association must show why SAPOL needs to properly staff
its own country structure, it has ample evidence on which to call.
One good reason to adequately staff country areas is the fact
that two out of every three deaths on South Australian roads occur in the
country. Does this statistic not serve as an indication as to why SAPOL needs
to see country staffing as an issue of the highest order?
And, apart from the burden with which inadequate staffing
afflicts association members, does not the community deserve better?
