❓ The Minister for Police provides an update on the merger of the Regional Operations Group and the Police Transport Unit, highlighting positive outcomes such as increased court briefs, apprehensions, and reduced rail offences.
AnsweredQoN 466Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
POLICE TRANSPORT UNIT–REGIONAL OPERATIONS
GROUP — MERGER
466. MR N.W. MORTON to the Minister for
Police:
Before I ask my question, I
acknowledge the fantastic student leaders from Edney Primary School in High Wycombe
in my electorate, who I had the pleasure of having lunch with today, and the
principal, Miss Jill Durrant.
Can the minister please update the
house on the merger of the regional operations group and the police transport
unit?
GROUP — MERGER
466. MR N.W. MORTON to the Minister for
Police:
Before I ask my question, I
acknowledge the fantastic student leaders from Edney Primary School in High Wycombe
in my electorate, who I had the pleasure of having lunch with today, and the
principal, Miss Jill Durrant.
Can the minister please update the
house on the merger of the regional operations group and the police transport
unit?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Forrestfield
for this question. As part of the Frontline 2020 initiative, the regional
operations group was merged with the police transport unit. We commenced that
work in July 2013. We looked at how we could merge those two particular work
units within police. Phase 2 of the project was finalised in February 2014.
Since that time, we have had the regional operation group units operating in a
dual capacity along the railway lines, and also, obviously, as a supplementary
resource as required to supplement the district teams. The trends have
indicated that offending patterns have actually moved away from transport
infrastructure, but offenders on public transport still have an impact on
public safety. WA Police was required to come up with a more effective,
responsive and proactive response in the deployment of resources to address
this problem. Our new ROG model actually allows for this. We have managed to
put together an enhanced commitment to Operation Railsafe. We are very pleased
with that. It has been focused on the Burswood–Armadale rail line. We have
had a greater focus on at-risk juveniles who are unaccompanied on railways and
public transport late at night, and we have also regularly been deploying our
police dogs onto the train services to target drug activities, particularly
around the entertainment precincts and concert venues.
The new model is still being bedded
down and refined, but the initial three months have shown a significant result.
The achievements of this unit are terrific. I am very proud of the work of our
police officers in the community. They do a professional and outstanding job at
all times. We have had a 27 per cent increase in court briefs, we have had 203 apprehensions
on warrants, we have had 539 at-risk juveniles apprehended, our rail offences
have been reduced by 5.6 per cent, and when we exclude the drug offences
targeted by police, all other reported offences on our rail unit have decreased
by 24 per cent. We are very pleased with the operational outcomes of the merger
of these two units. It was quite contentious at the time, and the accusation
was made that we were trying to make our police force do less with less. Once
again, all sorts of attempts were made to undermine the ability of police to do
their job and undermine the not insignificant efforts of police to do their job
more efficiently and more effectively in keeping with the requests of this
government to ensure that we deliver the best police service and we can be the
benchmark jurisdiction across Australia.
for this question. As part of the Frontline 2020 initiative, the regional
operations group was merged with the police transport unit. We commenced that
work in July 2013. We looked at how we could merge those two particular work
units within police. Phase 2 of the project was finalised in February 2014.
Since that time, we have had the regional operation group units operating in a
dual capacity along the railway lines, and also, obviously, as a supplementary
resource as required to supplement the district teams. The trends have
indicated that offending patterns have actually moved away from transport
infrastructure, but offenders on public transport still have an impact on
public safety. WA Police was required to come up with a more effective,
responsive and proactive response in the deployment of resources to address
this problem. Our new ROG model actually allows for this. We have managed to
put together an enhanced commitment to Operation Railsafe. We are very pleased
with that. It has been focused on the Burswood–Armadale rail line. We have
had a greater focus on at-risk juveniles who are unaccompanied on railways and
public transport late at night, and we have also regularly been deploying our
police dogs onto the train services to target drug activities, particularly
around the entertainment precincts and concert venues.
The new model is still being bedded
down and refined, but the initial three months have shown a significant result.
The achievements of this unit are terrific. I am very proud of the work of our
police officers in the community. They do a professional and outstanding job at
all times. We have had a 27 per cent increase in court briefs, we have had 203 apprehensions
on warrants, we have had 539 at-risk juveniles apprehended, our rail offences
have been reduced by 5.6 per cent, and when we exclude the drug offences
targeted by police, all other reported offences on our rail unit have decreased
by 24 per cent. We are very pleased with the operational outcomes of the merger
of these two units. It was quite contentious at the time, and the accusation
was made that we were trying to make our police force do less with less. Once
again, all sorts of attempts were made to undermine the ability of police to do
their job and undermine the not insignificant efforts of police to do their job
more efficiently and more effectively in keeping with the requests of this
government to ensure that we deliver the best police service and we can be the
benchmark jurisdiction across Australia.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.