Police on roads shortfall claims

WITH fatal crashes continuing to pile up and Tasmania Police stating it is about to have a “higher level of visibility”, a frustrated officer has made the bombshell claim staffing numbers are about to be stripped from the unit that handles road safety.

In light of the 26 deaths on the state’s roads this year, Deputy Commissioner Donna Adams last week announced police would increase their presence from July 1.

“The model will also include a dedicated highway patrol. It is clear we need to have a higher level of visibility on our roads and including our rural roads,” Ms Adams said.

However, a serving officer has questioned this statement and claimed the road and public order services (RPOS) unit, which looks after traffic, crash investigation, road safety, licensing and public order, was being halved in numbers.

“The bosses have come out and said we need to do something, but they actually aren’t,” the officer said.

“What they’re doing ... they’re actually halving the numbers. “The public would be shocked to know how little police are working.

“It’s a concern.”

He said Tasmania Police had 64 people working in the RPOS unit, with 20 of them in the road safety division, which is set to increase to 32 in July.

The officer said the other 32 members of RPOS would go into the “uniform branch”, or general duties, between the Glenorchy, Bridgewater, Bellerive and Hobart stations.

They said the majority of the 64 officers in RPOS did road policing, along with some looking after public order issues at Hobart’s waterfront and city malls.

A police spokeswoman said the officer’s claim of 64 becoming 32 was not accurate, with the new model still being figured out.

“They’re getting rid of people who do both, so there’s actually going to be less road police,” the officer said.

“Public order responsibility has been removed completely as well. Years ago it was out of control down there (at the waterfront) with people getting beaten up all the time.

“But because of the public order it’s a safe place now.”

The restructure means officers will work four 10-hour shifts a week, instead of five eight-hour shifts, leaving a maximum of eight officers on at any time. The officer said police were concerned poor driver behaviour was drastically rising in the South.

“We’ve noticed a massive increase in drink driving and crashes,’’ he said.

“We used to have drink drivers blow 0.08 or 0.09 prior to the last couple of years because we’ve done such a good job. But ... they’re regularly four or five times over the limit. So it’s no surprise to us traffic fatalities are increasing because people don’t fear getting caught.”

Tasmania Police Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Higgins (inset) said the force had been reviewing its road safety structure since last year.

“Our current road and public order services model was formed in 2013 when traffic branches and public order response teams were merged due to austerity measures and a loss of police numbers,” Mr Higgins said.

“The new model means ultimately the old public order response teams which were merged to form the three road and public order services will be moved to 24-hour stations to undertake a range of general duties to better support safe staffing levels.

“The implementation of the new traffic policing model will return dedicated traffic areas to similar staffing numbers prior to the establishment of road and public order services.

“It will mean we can have a dedicated highway patrol and it will allow us to increase our co-ordinated, large scale, high visibility operations across the state.”