SAPOL needs 169 more frontline officers for policing model to operate effectively
SAPOL has sworn in the first 15 recruits from its $12m international recruitment campaign, as it desperately tries to boost numbers to meet a growing population.
Police & Courts
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SAPOL has sworn in the first 15 recruits from its international recruitment campaign, part of a $12m international, interstate and local recruitment drive to boost numbers.
The 15 probationary constables — 10 from England, two from Scotland and others from New Zealand and interstate — are all experienced officers with a combined 123 years policing experience and will go through a streamlined 15 week transition program rather than the standard nine month cadet course.
This will include firearms training — recruits such as Oliver Lamb from Dorset and Emma Hollywood from Scotland previously carried Tasers while on patrol.
Mrs Hollywood’s husband Hamilton was also sworn in as a probationary constable and the couple bring a nine-year-old and twins who turn two in January in the move.
“I’ve been visiting SA since I was 12 and have always loved the lifestyle and weather here,” she said.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the next intake is scheduled for January as part of a broader strategy to recruit up to 200 experienced officers from across the UK, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, interstate, and potentially Canada — places with similar justice systems and policing philosophies.
The campaign follows difficulties getting suitable local recruits, and the need for experienced officers as older SAPOL officers retire or leave the service — SAPOL continues to recruit locally.
The new officers will graduate on March 4 and be deployed to districts including Port Pirie, Whyalla and the metropolitan area.
SA Police needs to enlist at least 169 more frontline officers before its controversial policing model will “start’ to function effectively, while it would need to recruit a minimum of 400 extra officers by 2030 in order to barely meet the demands of population growth.
However, figures show the force’s numbers increased by just 23 officers in 2023/24 – with 262 cadets graduating from the academy and 239 officers quitting or retiring. If it maintained this rate it would only gain an extra 138 officers by 2030.
State Cabinet is currently considering submissions from SAPOL on how many officers the force says it needs to keep up with demand over the coming years, taking into consideration projected population growth.
Neither the state government nor SA Police would disclose these numbers.
But the most recent Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services reveals SA currently has 238 sworn operational officers per 100,000 people.
With the Australian Bureau of Statistics projecting the state’s population could reach two million people in 2030, police would need to hire an additional 401 sworn operational officers over the next six years just to maintain the current ratio of officers-to-people.
However, it has been widely publicised for years that SAPOL has been struggling to keep pace with current demand, and more officers are already needed to ease the existing workload.
Officer numbers have stagnated in recent years, with government funding only allowing for about 4500 sworn police a year since 2018, despite the state’s population rising by about 100,000 people over this time.
In 2018/19, the ratio of sworn operational officers per 100,000 people was 262.
If SAPOL wanted to revert back to this ratio it would need to recruit an additional 881 officers to serve a population of two million people in 2030.
SA Police Chief Superintendent John De Candia said the force had been lobbying for extra police.
“We’ve put quite a number of submissions, and this has been occurring for quite some time, to government in relation to the growing demand on us now and into the future,” he said.
SA Police has long struggled with recruitment and it currently has 169 vacancies for sworn officers – which is impacting its operations.
Chief Superintendent De Candia said those vacancies needed to be filled so SAPOL’s District Policing Model (DPM), which was controversially phased in between 2018 and 2020, could operate effectively.
“That would start to make it work,” he said.
“We believe in the model but we need the staff (numbers) to be able to see the benefits of it.”
Police Minister Dan Cregan said the government was “making substantial investments” to expand recruitment campaigns and bolster frontline policing across the state.
“Over the coming week we will see the first group of experienced overseas officers arrive and be sworn in at the Police Academy, followed by another cadet course of new local recruits graduating days later,” he said.
Mr Cregan also said SA had more frontline officers per capita than any other state.
Opposition police spokesperson Jack Batty said police were “crying out for help from the government but it seems to be falling on deaf ears”.
Policing model failing, contributing to mass exodus
The SA Police District Policing Model is failing, and contributing to a mass exodus of officers from the force, the police union boss says.
Police Association of South Australia president Wade Burns said the model has reduced the number of frontline officers in the field and made policing “a far more punishing job”.
“A big reason for the failure of the DPM is SAPOL’s premise that you can prevent crime at the source by taking numbers away from frontline policing,” he said.
“Cities around the world have learned the hard way that isn’t possible.”
Mr Burns said the model was among the reasons officers were quitting in droves.
“SAPOL insists the model hasn’t been properly tested because it’s never been fully staffed, but after more than six years, the question is: when will it be fully staffed?” he said.
A 2023 police association survey showed revealed only seven per cent of respondents supported the DPM.
Critics of the model say it has led to less frontline officers covering larger areas, leading to longer response times and overworked members.
The DPM centralised some services to enable 24/7 coverage and created ‘response’ teams, which were to primarily attend urgent taskings, and ‘district policing teams (DPT)’, which were primarily responsible for proactive policing in their dedicated areas as well as attending less urgent taskings. However, both teams are required to attend any taskings should they be required.
Former police officer Tim Tollenaar, who resigned in 2023 after 38 years in the force, described the DPM as a “sunk cost fallacy”.
“Due to the fact there are not – and never will be – enough police to adequately staff this model, DPT members were taken from their teams to bolster ‘response’,” he said.
“This led to a rapid increase in crime because there was no proactive policing.
“Those left on DPTs were overwhelmed with follow-up inquiries and naturally were resentful of having to take on extra work which was ‘supposed to be’ the job of response members.”
A serving officer, who spoke to The Advertiser on the condition of anonymity, said under the DPM “there are definitely not enough patrols around”.
“Of an evening there are regularly jobs remaining on hold for extended periods of time with no one to attend,” they said.
SA Police Chief Superintendent John De Candia said SAPOL would not scrap the DPM because difficulties were stemming from a shortage of officers – not the model itself.
“Winding it back would not give us any additional staff,” he said.
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