The public expects police to at least rock up | Kara Jung

If you expect police will show up when you’re the victim of crime, SA’s top cop says you might need to think again, writes Kara Jung.

Have you been a victim of crime? How was your experience with the police?

A city trader told The Advertiser on Tuesday they are often the victim of crime but there’s a problem with police “not turning up”.

“Last week we got our door kicked in and the police didn’t come at all,” said Marta Rog who owns a King William St convenience store.

My experience was pre-kids.

While we were sleeping someone came through our back courtyard gate and into our home. It creeps me out to think they might have also come into our bedroom as we slept.

They took my handbag, which housed my passport, my only photo identification, due to my purse being stolen from my handbag the week before while out in the city.

Grant Stevens said people needed to get “perspective” if they expected a police officer was going to turn up after someone puts a boot through their shop window or kicks a hole in their office door. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Yep, I was having a bad week and some robbers were having a pretty good one going by how much I was left out of pocket.

I remember feeling violated in a way that is hard to put into words – someone was in my home, my private space, uninvited, while we slept.

But what felt really icky was the fact that when we called the cops, they didn’t come.

They said it wasn’t worth coming and taking fingerprints as there wasn’t anything significant stolen and it was unlikely to result in an arrest.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said today that’s just business as usual.

“If you are a victim of property damage and there are no suspects present and there’s no likelihood of any significant forensic evidence, it’s not necessarily the case that a police officer is going to attend,” he said when confronted with the soaring crime stats.

For anyone who’s had a robber in you home just meters from where you sleep, while you slept, is horrible.

I reckon the least one could expect is for the cops to come out. And I think a hardworking business owner who’s had their door kicked in could reasonably expect the same thing.

In 2022, there were 352 incidents classed as “serious assault resulting in injury” in the heart of our city – a 350 per cent jump compared to the 2015-17 period.

There were 552 serious assaults not resulting in injury, 670 common assaults and basically a huge jump in CBD crime.

Traders are complaining of rubbish-filled dirty streets and a jump in crime.

Right now Adelaide is flush with tourists – tens of thousands of people attended last weekend’s AFL Gather Round and thousands more are here for this weekend’s LIV Golf tournament.

And in a few weeks we will again have tourists flowing through our airport when we host five matches in the Women’s World Cup.

When people visit our state, we want to showcase the best of our wonderful city.

Not dirty, crime-filled streets.

And we want our guests to know if something happens, the police will rock up.