❓ A parliamentary question addresses rising crime rates in Kalgoorlie, questioning the impact of police restructuring and officer shortages. The Minister defends the changes and addresses staffing challenges.
AnsweredQoN 64Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the recently released crime statistics which show that the Kalgoorlie district has had a 19.8 per cent increase in reported offences and a 6.2 per cent reduction in the clearance rate since last year, and ask - (1) How will the abolition of the central police region and the removal of Commander Darryl Balchin and his five staff from Kalgoorlie-Boulder improve these terrible figures? (2) Does the minister now admit that the longstanding shortage of police officers in Kalgoorlie-Boulder has contributed to this huge increase in unsolved crime? Mr PRINCE
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(1) How will the abolition of the central police region and the removal of Commander Darryl Balchin and his five staff from Kalgoorlie-Boulder improve these terrible figures? (2) Does the minister now admit that the longstanding shortage of police officers in Kalgoorlie-Boulder has contributed to this huge increase in unsolved crime? Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(2) Does the minister now admit that the longstanding shortage of police officers in Kalgoorlie-Boulder has contributed to this huge increase in unsolved crime? Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(1) How will the abolition of the central police region and the removal of Commander Darryl Balchin and his five staff from Kalgoorlie-Boulder improve these terrible figures? (2) Does the minister now admit that the longstanding shortage of police officers in Kalgoorlie-Boulder has contributed to this huge increase in unsolved crime? Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(2) Does the minister now admit that the longstanding shortage of police officers in Kalgoorlie-Boulder has contributed to this huge increase in unsolved crime? Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Mr PRINCE replied: (1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
(1)-(2) The crime statistics which I tabled yesterday, and which I have made a habit of tabling every quarter, unlike previous Governments, clearly show that there have been significant advances in some areas of crime, there have not been such good advances in other areas, and in some districts there have been significant reductions - Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Dr Gallop: You are looking and sounding more like a minor figure from a nineteenth century novel. Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
Mr PRINCE: What a tremendous compliment. There is no doubt, as I said yesterday in the three-minute statement I made and in the press release I put out, that there has been an increase of 19.8 per cent in reported crime in Kalgoorlie. Commander Darryl Balchin and the other staff who are part of the command structure are not operational police officers; they do not get involved with operational matters. They are command and administrative people, and whether they exist in Kalgoorlie or they exist in Perth has absolutely no effect on the operational policing of the Kalgoorlie district, which is a much larger area than simply Kalgoorlie-Boulder, as we both discussed and debated yesterday. It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
It does not make any difference at all to operational policing where particular commanders are located. The decision to amalgamate some commands is one that the Police Service has made after extensive consultation with local government, members of Parliament and with many other people. The result will be a better command structure than before. With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
With regard to the second part of the question, it is difficult to get police officers, nurses, teachers and fire officers to go to Kalgoorlie. The perception is that it is not a good posting. I think that perception is wrong. I have given the previous example of having to run a school in Kalgoorlie to train local people as fire officers because other fire officers would not apply to go there. We cannot do that with police officers. There have been difficulties in filling the vacancies. All vacancies except two have now been filled. The two vacancies are subject to officers who are on transfer. A full complement will be reached in the next few weeks. In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
In order to persuade people to go to Kalgoorlie, a number of changes have been made. There are 116 police officers in Kalgoorlie. I doubt whether the small shortfall in the past has made much difference to the rates of crime. I suspect it has far more to do with the sort of people in that region. We discussed Adeline yesterday and the small numbers in the community who commit the overwhelming majority of crime. They are responsible for the changes in rates of crime, not the shortfall in officers.
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