APY Lands communities engulfed in violence as police operate at two-thirds of capacity and battle to fill roles

Indigenous communities are calling for more police, with a stretched force battling to staff one of the state’s most remote areas.

One of the state’s most remote areas is short almost a third of its allocated police officers, with an already stretched force battling to fill positions and stem ongoing violence in Indigenous communities.

SA Police this week issued an expression of interest – its sixth in the past two years – seeking members to deploy to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in an effort to fill nine vacancies in the region.

Under the APY Staffing Model, which Commissioner Grant Stevens formally signed off on in August 2021, 30 full-time officers were supposed to be stationed at Amata, Mimili, Ernabella and Murputja.

However, only 21 full-time officers are currently based in the section, with two on long term sick leave and several awaiting transfers to other sections.

APY executive board member and male member for Mimili Rex Tjami said a lack of police resources meant ongoing violence in his community was continuing after several violent incidents last year.

SA Police is battling to fill vacancies in the remote APY Lands amid community violence.

“The violence is carrying on,” Mr Tjami said.

“There’s not enough policing at the moment.”

The Advertiser last year revealed the Education Department had closed the Mimili Anangu school and evacuated teachers and staff ahead of school holidays after a violent brawl in the community.

Community members at the time raised concerns about police response times and resourcing issues.

“It’s getting dangerous for the kids,” Mr Tjami said.

Mr Tjami said the resourcing issues stretched right across the APY Lands and had not improved since last year.

“The more it goes on, the more violence goes on,” Mr Tjami, who praised the work of police when they were station on the Lands, said.

Before the new staffing model’s implementation, which came as part of a $1m budget cut under the former Liberal state government, officers were permanently stationed on the Lands and received extra allowances to do so.

But under the new model, officers, who fly in and out of the Lands to work an eight day shift, are paid a 45 per cent loading during their deployment and 18.5 per cent while based in Adelaide.

The minimum period officers are required to be deployed to the section was reduced in the latest expression of interest from two years to one.

APY executive board member and Mimili male member Rex Tjami said police shortages in the remote Aboriginal lands had not improved since violence and unrest in his community erupted last year.

“We need police who live in the community and work in the community,” Mr Tjami said.

“There’s not enough of them.”

The Police Association of South Australia strongly opposed the new model, arguing at the time that it would deter officers from taking up positions in the Lands.

The union is currently locked in a dispute with SA Police in the South Australian Employment Tribunal over the scrapping of the allowances which were agreed to in an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement before the new model was introduced.

An SA Police spokesman said incentives for APY Policing Section were being “actively” reviewed.

“The number of vacancies can vary from time to time and are either relieved into, or filled permanently as and when they become vacant,” he said.

“Some of the challenges to attracting people are often individually based decisions and are not unique to SAPOL.

“Distance and isolation can be a factor in addition to financial and family considerations.”