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Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: OZschwitz pigs resigning in record numbers  Wed Jan 16, 2008 6:41 pm | |
| Blue line thinner as senior police quit
EXPERIENCED police are leaving the NSW force in droves and the Iemma Government faces an uphill battle to retain senior officers and meet its target of 750 extra police over the next four years, Opposition figures show.
A study quoting unnamed officers has also raised concerns that a rush to sign up police compromises the quality of recruits.
The Opposition police spokesman, Mike Gallacher - a former police officer - said yesterday that even though 229 police graduated from the academy in December, about 179 had left the force between September and November.
"That means … there are now just 50 extra police and all of them require extensive supervision by senior staff," he said.
Of the 57 officers who left in October, 16 were sergeants and above, and 29 senior constables.
Before the election, the Iemma Government promised to provide hundreds of extra officers. But achieving that will require recruiting thousands of extra police to make up for the hundreds leaving the force every year.
The annual report showed 780 police left in the 2006-07 financial year, compared with 727 officers the year before. Most were declared medically unfit, but more than 260 resigned. Only 24 retired and 17 were dismissed.
Unlike other Australian states, NSW has not had trouble recruiting police. However, it has struggled to retain senior officers. A rejoinee program is under way to attract skilled officers who have left to return.
The academics Janet Chan and David Dixon analysed changes in the NSW Police Force in the 10 years since the Wood Royal Commission in an article for the international journal Criminology & Criminal Justice.
One anonymous police officer told them that when the Government pledged to recruit 1000 extra police officers a few years ago "concerns were raised about quality, field practice and support for those probationers in the field … but to no avail".
Another said of a previous minister: "His move to increase police numbers … they simply reduced standards."
In 2005-06, 44 per cent of officers had less than five years' "experience, and almost 70 per cent had less than 10 years".
Mr Gallacher called on NSW Police to reintroduce exit interviews to work out why officers were leaving.
"They go outside and get snaffled by insurance companies and private investigators to do the same job we've paid them to learn," he said. "We are losing experience. Many of them are supervisors and sergeants and above. The ones who are leaving are the ones we'd hope to be training the young ones. There's obviously financial issues. There's job satisfaction issues."
However, the Police Minister, David Campbell, said the attrition rate in the police force was below the public sector average. In a force of 15,000, there was always going to be fluctuation in staff numbers.
"The fact is the Iemma Government has provided record numbers of young, enthusiastic police men and women for the NSW Police Force and they are doing a great job of driving down crime," Mr Campbell said.
He said the force's actual strength was above its authorised strength of 15,206. Crime was either stable or down in 16 of the 17 main categories monitored by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Mr Gallacher also called for more jobs to be given to people who were ruled medically unfit for active duty.
'There are a myriad of jobs in the police force that injured officers could do. One of the proposals that I took to the election campaign was using police who are injured, and incapable of doing full-time work, to still be involved in investigations."
In 2006-07, 445 people left the force because they were medically unfit.
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