The issue of a supposedly-full complement of officers at the local police station being anything but has come under the scrutiny of councillors at Tenterfield Shire Council’s May meeting on Wednesday.
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With the NSW Police Association’s current efforts to offload prisoner transports duties to other agencies highlighting the gaps in local law enforcement, Cr Bronwyn Petrie raised the issue of absences due to officers on long-term leave.
“We may have a full complement of police but with three on long-term leave we’re down already without prisoner transport,” she said.
“It further exacerbates the problem.”
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She won her fellow-councillors support to lobby state government to provide temporary replacements for officers on long-term leave of more than three months.
“We’re not in the city where the next police station is a 15-minute walk away,” Cr Petrie said.
“We have less police numbers and an extensive shire. The sergeant’s doing night shifts himself.
“We’re lucky here with a low crime rate, but the community deserves better.”
She said under the current arrangements it’s possible for staffing levels to be down to two-thirds for a period of up to two years, and that it’s a safety issue for the officers on duty as well.
Cr Greg Sauer concurred, saying that if officers are on extended leave, staffing levels are not full.
“It’s not a privilege to have a full police force, but a right,” he said.
