COPS AND SLOBBERS

Liberals to pledge 125 more officers Labor to introduce police dogs to state

BOTH major political parties will today make a pitch for the law and order vote, with the Liberals promising more officers on the beat and Labor funding for police dogs.

The promises will be made by Premier Will Hodgman and Labor leader Rebecca White at a Police Association conference as speculation swirls that an election could be called within a week for March 3.

Mr Hodgman will promise that if re-elected he would fund an additional 125 police officers across Tasmania and focus on deploying them to regional and rural locations.

Ms White will promise funding to train and deploy three general-duties police dogs — one each for the North, South and Western districts.

Tasmania is the only state that does not have the dogs, that perform tasks such as tracking offenders who are on foot after car thefts and robberies.

The Hodgman Government has already increased police numbers by 113 during its four years in office.

The additional 125 officers would take the total force to almost 1400.

Mr Hodgman said his party’s commitment would take police numbers to the “next level”.

BOTH major political parties will use a police forum to spell out how they will keep Tasmania safe if elected at the state election.

Premier Will Hodgman and Labor leader Rebecca White will today front a Police Association of Tasmania conference.

Mr Hodgman will say the Liberal Party will add 125 officers to the police force — focusing on regional and rural locations — if re-elected while Ms White will say among Labor’s law and order strategy is an intention to end Tasmania’s status as the only state without general duties police dogs.

“My Government has increased police numbers by 113 after the Labor-Green cuts, as we promised we would,” Mr Hodgman said.

“We will now take police numbers to the next level to make our communities safer.”

Police Minister Rene Hidding said it would assist the plan to make Tasmania the safest state in the nation — with a target to have the lowest serious crime rate in the nation across all victimisation measures by 2022.

The addition of 125 officers would take the state’s police numbers to 1362.

Ms White said it was important that the state’s police force was provided with the required resources and if her party formed majority government they would spend $1 million to end Tasmania’s status as the only state that doesn’t use general duties police dogs.

This would involve the North, South and Western districts all having one dog each.

“General duties dogs are invaluable for our police officers because they are trained specifically for situations like tracking offenders who are on foot, particularly after car thefts and evasion situations,” Ms White said. “Despite a successful trial of general duties dogs last year, no action has been taken by the Liberals to train dogs of our own.”

Ms White said Labor also would adopt laws recently introduced interstate to protect emergency services workers, including slowing to 40km/h when passing a stationary or slow-moving emergency vehicle that either has its lights flashing or a siren sounding.

Police Association of Tasmania president Pat Allen said while more resources were needed, and better strategic planning, he was concerned that victims of crime were being forgotten.

“Police officers know that however utopian the system, there will continue to be victims of crime,” he said.