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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-17 Daily Xml
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NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister inform the house about SAPOL's focus on local communities in an effort to improve community safety?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:40): I thank the member for Light for his question. The government has committed to recruiting an additional 313 police officers, 129 of whom are expected to be on duty by 30 June this year. This is on top of the 170 to 180 officers recruited each year to maintain existing numbers and builds on the 1,000 extra staff added to SAPOL since Labor was elected. The new officers joining SAPOL this year will boost patrols and CIB branches in local service areas, add specialist family violence staff to support new intervention orders, increase the organised crime and electronic crime branches, take the transit branch to more than 100 officers for the first time and more than double the number of officers in the neighbourhood policing teams.

SAPOL currently operates neighbourhood policing teams in vulnerable communities within the northern and southern suburbs, including Davoren Park, Smithfield, Munno Para, Hackham West, Huntfield Heights, Seaford and Seaford Rise. The new officers will be allocated to a new team in the northern suburbs and the first ever neighbourhood policing team in Adelaide's western region. As we have seen with more than 20,000 crimes being solved through Crime Stoppers, the community plays a major role in the detection and reporting of offences.

Local people are often the key witnesses that lead to successful prosecutions and providing a local officer who is known and trusted can be vital in giving people the confidence to speak up. Being attached to a specific suburb, the neighbourhood policing team officers are not patrol staff who get called to each corner of the LSA, or beyond. These officers are given the opportunity to develop relationships with residents, businesses and service providers.

One of the most important outcomes from the neighbourhood policing team model is that it helps police to solve problems rather than just solving crimes. In the north, the neighbourhood policing team worked in partnership with local residents, builders and developers to address a cluster of thefts from building sites and newly finished homes. They conducted surveillance and provided advice on security and site management that resulted in a significant reduction in thefts. In the south, the neighbourhood policing team worked with the local council and Housing SA to establish contact with, and arrange assistance for, a resident who had previously refused to engage with services and was experiencing difficulties managing their home.

This cooperative approach has multiple benefits. For the community, they see issues that are costing them money or causing disturbance being fixed; for the police and other government agencies, it helps to create bonds of trust and collaboration between operational staff. One officer made the point that the government had set up MOUs and processes to help information flow between agencies; however, these agreements developed a whole new meaning after you met, worked with and achieved outcomes with staff from other organisations. It was no longer just about sharing the information, but it had become more about sharing the responsibility, sharing the successes and sharing the lessons about how things can be improved.

This government has boosted the funding and staffing for SAPOL to record levels so that it can initiate new and innovative programs like this without affecting existing services, and I look forward to updating the house on the work of the new neighbourhood policing teams in the future.

The SPEAKER: Perfect timing, minister. Four minutes exactly. The member for Norwood.

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