Time to come clean on staffing
The failure of the state budget to allow for extra police
necessitated the placement of a Police Association advertisement in the
Sunday Mail last month.
It is now time for Commissioner Mal Hyde to acknowledge that
he has far too few numbers to staff his local-service-area model adequately. If
the intention is to maintain the model in its present form, then it is time for
the government to staff it.
Beyond natural attrition, SAPOL has in the last 10 years
only recruited an extra 200 officers. This came as a result of the
Premier’s Task Force, which was established after the Police
Association’s staffing campaign.
To fund new accommodation and equipment for policing is
commendable. But new police stations can serve little purpose without adequate
numbers of staff to occupy them. And of how much value can new equipment be
with too few staff to use it?
It appears that the responsibility to pursue appropriate
staffing levels has yet again fallen to the association. And, it will live up
to that responsibility, as the SA community deserves no less than a police
force with adequate staffing.
