❓ Question regarding the impact of abolishing the 'Frontline 2020' policing model on crime rates, answered by highlighting increased crime rates under the previous government and improvements under the current government.
AnsweredQoN 632Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
POLICE —
FRONTLINE 2020
632. MR
S.J. PRICE to the Minister for Police:
Can the minister update the house on
how the McGowan Labor government's decision to put an end to the failed
and disastrous Frontline 2020 policing model has led to falls in crime across
the state?
FRONTLINE 2020
632. MR
S.J. PRICE to the Minister for Police:
Can the minister update the house on
how the McGowan Labor government's decision to put an end to the failed
and disastrous Frontline 2020 policing model has led to falls in crime across
the state?
AnswerView source ↗
I
thank the member for Forrestfield for his question and for his strong support
of our police and the job they do in our community. The fact of the matter is
that perhaps with the exception of state finances, there are few areas of
greater failure for the Barnett–Harvey Liberal government than that of
policing and crime. It certainly was a huge failure. That is not just my
assertion; it is based on the facts. If we look at the Western Australia Police
Force website, we will see that in 2009–10, there was a total number of
213 910 crime reports. By 2015–16, there were 292 894 crime reports a year.
That is a 27 per cent increase in six years. Over a six-year period there were
78 984 more crimes. That is tens of thousands of additional crimes every year—a
27 per cent increase. Most increases in crime that we have seen over the last
century have been in single digits. The member for Scarborough as Minister for
Police, and her government, managed to get more than double-digit increases—a
27 per cent increase in the total number of crimes. The former government did
two key things to achieve that. One was that it ignored the issue of
methamphetamine and drug use in the community—absolutely ignored it.
There is evidence to support that, too. The Drug Use Monitoring in
Australia—DUMA—independent results show that the percentage of
detainees testing positive to amphetamine in 2012 was 28 per cent and by 2016
it was up to 60 per cent, the highest of any state in Australia. The former
government let it get out of control. Then, on top of that, because of its
budget cuts, pressure was put on the Commissioner of Police to bring in a new
policing model. The previous government could no longer afford seven policing
districts in the metropolitan area, so the commissioner cut it to four
mega-districts, and crime soared because of that—a direct result of the
pressure that the member for Scarborough and her government put on the
Commissioner of Police of the day to do things on the cheap, and the community
paid the price. We need only look at the sorts of campaigns that the member for
Scarborough undertook as Minister for Police. In 2016, she launched a burglary
campaign, encouraging people to lock their doors and windows because government
had given up on it. The government had given up, and she said, ''It's
over to you. Lock your doors and lock your windows.''
Let us look at what has happened in
the last three years. Yesterday I went out and highlighted the success that the
Western Australia Police Force is now having with burglary across the state.
The police had given up on even attending all home burglaries; now they have
put in place a clear policy of attending within two hours. I hope there will
not be exceptions, but on occasion there will be, but that is their policy.
They reviewed what happened in previous years and they have now set a policy
that police will actually aim to attend home burglaries within two hours and
they will collect forensic evidence such as fingerprints.
In
the last three years we have seen a reduction of some 20 per cent in the number
of home burglaries across the metropolitan region. That is 4 500 fewer home
burglaries now than there were three years ago, on an annual basis. That is
huge. That is 12 fewer home burglaries a day. They are the kinds of results
that we can get when we properly fund our police force; provide an additional
120 officers to deal with methamphetamine; create a new metro district to bring
the number back up to eight; and when police are able to respond. It is not the
failed 2020 model, under which the previous government broke the force into
four metro districts and had local policing teams and response teams, so that
the response teams were under so much pressure that they could not attend home
burglaries. This is a dramatic turnaround and it is in colossal contrast with
the absolute failure of the member for Scarborough and her government.
thank the member for Forrestfield for his question and for his strong support
of our police and the job they do in our community. The fact of the matter is
that perhaps with the exception of state finances, there are few areas of
greater failure for the Barnett–Harvey Liberal government than that of
policing and crime. It certainly was a huge failure. That is not just my
assertion; it is based on the facts. If we look at the Western Australia Police
Force website, we will see that in 2009–10, there was a total number of
213 910 crime reports. By 2015–16, there were 292 894 crime reports a year.
That is a 27 per cent increase in six years. Over a six-year period there were
78 984 more crimes. That is tens of thousands of additional crimes every year—a
27 per cent increase. Most increases in crime that we have seen over the last
century have been in single digits. The member for Scarborough as Minister for
Police, and her government, managed to get more than double-digit increases—a
27 per cent increase in the total number of crimes. The former government did
two key things to achieve that. One was that it ignored the issue of
methamphetamine and drug use in the community—absolutely ignored it.
There is evidence to support that, too. The Drug Use Monitoring in
Australia—DUMA—independent results show that the percentage of
detainees testing positive to amphetamine in 2012 was 28 per cent and by 2016
it was up to 60 per cent, the highest of any state in Australia. The former
government let it get out of control. Then, on top of that, because of its
budget cuts, pressure was put on the Commissioner of Police to bring in a new
policing model. The previous government could no longer afford seven policing
districts in the metropolitan area, so the commissioner cut it to four
mega-districts, and crime soared because of that—a direct result of the
pressure that the member for Scarborough and her government put on the
Commissioner of Police of the day to do things on the cheap, and the community
paid the price. We need only look at the sorts of campaigns that the member for
Scarborough undertook as Minister for Police. In 2016, she launched a burglary
campaign, encouraging people to lock their doors and windows because government
had given up on it. The government had given up, and she said, ''It's
over to you. Lock your doors and lock your windows.''
Let us look at what has happened in
the last three years. Yesterday I went out and highlighted the success that the
Western Australia Police Force is now having with burglary across the state.
The police had given up on even attending all home burglaries; now they have
put in place a clear policy of attending within two hours. I hope there will
not be exceptions, but on occasion there will be, but that is their policy.
They reviewed what happened in previous years and they have now set a policy
that police will actually aim to attend home burglaries within two hours and
they will collect forensic evidence such as fingerprints.
In
the last three years we have seen a reduction of some 20 per cent in the number
of home burglaries across the metropolitan region. That is 4 500 fewer home
burglaries now than there were three years ago, on an annual basis. That is
huge. That is 12 fewer home burglaries a day. They are the kinds of results
that we can get when we properly fund our police force; provide an additional
120 officers to deal with methamphetamine; create a new metro district to bring
the number back up to eight; and when police are able to respond. It is not the
failed 2020 model, under which the previous government broke the force into
four metro districts and had local policing teams and response teams, so that
the response teams were under so much pressure that they could not attend home
burglaries. This is a dramatic turnaround and it is in colossal contrast with
the absolute failure of the member for Scarborough and her government.
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.