‘Short sighted stupidity” is how Rumney candidate and former police commander Tony Mulder described the prospect of a dramatic reduction in front line policing services.
“Former senior colleagues inform me that Treasury has directed a 15% cut to the police budget” Tony Mulder said, “and Treasury have not indicated where the savings are to be made. Everything is up for grabs with the only condition being that law enforcement revenue must be maintained and preferably increased.”
This information confirms Mr Mulder’s experience of Treasury instructions. “They delegate the hard decisions to departments and allow the politicians to hide from the savagery of their decisions by claiming that service reductions are operational matters. However, they are quick to claim credit when crime rates fall.“
With 80% of the police budget in salary, a 15% cut can only mean staff reductions. “My former colleagues inform me that to achieve their targets each of the 5 major districts within Tasmania Police need to reduce staff by at least 30 officers per command. My contacts raise concerns that this can only be achieved by centralising operations to the detriment of regional and rural areas, with areas like Dodges Ferry and Sorell being serviced from city areas.”
“One idea being actively discussed is a merger of the Eastern and Southern Districts into a single Hobart or Glenorchy based command.
District HQ stations like Bellerive and Glenorchy will be downgraded to divisional stations and Sorell and New Norfolk could easily become 9-5
Monday to Friday front counter operations. After-hours response would be by Hobart based patrols,” Mr Mulder said.
“This will mean the end of locally based crime prevention policing and an almost total switch to ‘after the event’ detection and revenue raising operations like speed cameras. As put by a Reynolds Road Midway Point resident who I doorknocked during the week,” Don’t call the police, call the Minister – neither will respond but at least the Minister has to face the voters. “
“The Minister must intervene on behalf of her department and her regional constituency and call a halt to this madness. “
“This is the worst kind of economic stupidity, particularly in the climate of Labor induced budgetary disaster and rising crime and public disorder rates. The cost of crime will far outweigh any short term savings and ten years of a strategic focus on addressing the social causes of crime are being abandoned – in favour of city based policing that is disconnected from where the real need is.” Mr Mulder said.
“The Minister should tell the people of Richmond, Midway Point, Lauderdale and Dodges Ferry, Nubeena, Dunalley and Clarence Plains, that instead of gaining a local police presence they will now be serviced from Bellerive and Hobart where police will be focussed on city public disorder and revenue raising traffic enforcement.”
