Extra SA Police patrols for Adelaide metro area after major restructure
A major overhaul of police operations will see an extra 40 patrol cars on the road and individual teams of officers policing crime in dedicated areas.
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An extra 40 patrol cars will be on the streets of Adelaide from today as part of a major overhaul of police operations.
The second phase of Police Commissioner Grant Stevens’ District Policing Model will also see 48 new teams created with the aim of driving crime rates down and improving public safety.
Each team of up to 10 officers will be assigned to a dedicated group of suburbs to tackle the causes of crime and target recidivist offenders.
“It is a direct benefit to have more patrol cars in the wider metropolitan area and will enhance our visibility,’’ Mr Stevens said.
“But I think the biggest move is being able to focus on the causes of crime and disorder and prevent the re-attendance of patrols to re-occurring problems.”
The State Government has provided an additional $18.6 million in funding over four years for the initiative to pay for the extra patrol cars and equipment.
Police Minister Corey Wingard said the Government had continued to invest heavily in SA Police to ensure the “safety and security’’ of the state.
“Our goal, ultimately, is to drive the crime rate down as low as possible to ensure that those in our community feel safe and protected,’’ he said.
The first phase of the new model was introduced in July 2018. It included the former six Local Service Areas in Adelaide being cut into four policing districts, which removed geographical patrol boundaries, and the consolidation of intelligence operations.
Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford, who has led the project, said response times to incidents had decreased, despite demands on police continuing to rise.
Police figures reveal triple-0 calls increased from 144,179 in 2014/15 to 166,772 in 2018/19.
Calls to the incident report line rose from 415,197 to 547,842 in the same period.
“We predicted back in 2013 that demand for police services was going to rise to a point where we would struggle to meet it, and that has been what the whole reform program has been about,’’ he said.
“We hope that by bringing the district policing teams in and overlapping the rosters we will have additional patrols on the road when they are most needed. That is a fundamental part of this model.’’
The second phase of the new model includes two groups of officers – response teams and district policing teams – each with distinct functions.
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The primary role of the district policing teams is working on the underlying causes of police demand, but they will support the response teams when needed.
Anecdotally, police are aware that 80 per cent of the demand is related to 20 per cent of addresses in the metropolitan area.
Mr Bamford said the district policing teams were a significant expansion of the existing, highly-successful neighbourhood policing teams.
“They will get to know their community, their community will get to know them, they will get to know the problem addresses where we are sending patrols time and time again,’’ he said.
“They will try to solve the problems at those addresses, but at the same time they will be locking up those committing the offences.’’