Tweed’s thin blue line

NSW Government ignoring plight of stressed cops

STRESSED police on the Tweed are desperately understaffed and facing burn-out, officers say.

However their pleas for help are being ignored by Sydney bosses who are refusing to send any of this year’s 330 new NSW police graduates north.

Police sources say the region’s ageing force suffers a high rate of sick leave due the pressure of serving a booming population which is spread out over a wide area.

Since 2012, the Tweed population has grown by almost 5000 to more than 90,000, while the number of “authorised” officers in the Tweed Byron district has gone from 154 to only 163.

The Tweed council wrote to the NSW Government asking why the area was being ignored. It is yet to receive a reply.

“People get sick because they get burnt out,” an experienced officer said.

“They get burnt out because of a lack of staff.

“The average age of officers is about 40.”

The officer said it could take 50 minutes to get from one end of the command area to the other, compounding the staff shortage.

Tweed Superintendent Wayne Starling declined to comment on staff shortages

Federal Member for Tweed and ex-police officer Justine Elliott praised the job cops were doing under pressure but said they needed help.

“We desperately need a significant increase in police numbers,” the Labor MP said.

“A lot of people have approached me. Locals are very worried.”

Tweed MP Geoff Provest said it was not the place of politicians to determine if police were adequately staffed.

If officers-in-charge believed more police were needed, they would have the support of the Police Minister and the Commissioner, he said.

Mr Provest said it was up to the officer-in-charge to submit a business case for more resources. He said he did not believe that had been done.

“It’s a real operational issue. If he (the officer-in-charge) wanted more, he would get more,” he said.

Mr Provest said he believed there were enough police to keep the region safe.

“Our crime rates are at a three or four-year all-time low.”

Asked this week why no new police recruits would be deployed to the Tweed, a spokeswoman for NSW Police Minister Troy Grant said the issue was a “matter for the Commissioner”.

“Last year, the Minister announced the re-engineering of the NSW Police Force to enhance the executive structure and ensure more officers are on the ground where they are needed,” she said.

IT’S State of Origin season and cross-border rivalry is at its peak.

But the residents of Northern NSW must wonder that when it comes to state services, they might be better off being part of Queensland.

Tweed Heads is 820km from the seat of the NSW Government in Sydney and out of sight, out of mind.

We saw it with the shark nets farce. Sydney swimmers and surfers have been afforded this protection since 1937 but even after fatal shark attacks up north, the NSW Government was appallingly slow to drop nets off Ballina.

Residents of Northern NSW are also forgotten when it comes to policing.

Federal Member for Tweed Justine Elliott should know. She’s a former police officer and says her region desperately needs more cops.

According to the NSW Government’s own figures, the population of the Tweed in 2011 was 88,000. Last year that had grown to 94,000 and by 2021, 100,000 people will live there. Yet despite this growth, none of the 330 NSW police academy graduates this year will be deployed to the Tweed.

It’s time Sydney realised its responsibilities extend further north than Newcastle.