Police response time faster for Sydney’s eastern suburbs vs western
Police are responding to urgent triple-0 call outs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs much faster than they are in the city’s west. See the time difference here.
NSW
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Police are responding to urgent call outs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs much faster than they are in the city’s west, with Parramatta having the worst response rate in the whole state.
NSW Police responded to 158,773 urgent calls across the state over the 2020-2021 financial year – reaching the scene within the 12 minute benchmark 75.7 per cent of the time.
Urgent incidents are classified as Triple-0 calls where there is an imminent threat to life or property.
But there is a clear divide in response times across the city from east to west, with the 20 worst rated police area commands (PACs) for response time all situated to the west of the M1.
In past two years, response times in Parramatta PAC have ballooned from an average of 6.5 minutes to 8 minutes.
Almost a third of urgent callouts in the same area were not responded to within the required 12 minutes.
The issue is one of many that will be put to Police Minister Paul Toole on Wednesday as he faces a grilling at budget estimates, with Shadow Police Minister Walt Secord saying the data showed Sydney is a “tale of two cities”.
“Make no mistake, NSW Police are under enormous pressure and they are being let down by the Perrottet Government,” Mr Secord told The Daily Telegraph.
“It is sad to see that families in urgent or life-threatening situations – especially in western Sydney – are not getting the emergency assistance they require.
“Clearly, this is a tale of two cities: response times in the east and the lower north shore are much better than in western Sydney.
“The Perrottet Government is letting down both western Sydney businesses and families.”
The statistics on police response times – gathered under a freedom of information request – will be revealed by Mr Secord at Budget Estimates on Wednesday.
Mr Toole will be joined by the state’s first female top cop Karen Webb and other senior police officials.
Of the 57 police districts in NSW, 43 failed to respond to a fifth or more of urgent calls in the required time.
Parramatta, Campsie and Liverpool City had the worst percentage of urgent calls being responded to in the required time.
The statistics about those PACs, all in Sydney’s western suburbs, are more concerning than the longest wait times which occurred in the police districts of the Mid North Coast, Central North and Barrier – all regional areas.
Unsurprisingly, the numbers show the closer to the CBD you live, the better things are.
Call-outs are responded to faster in the Surry Hills PAC than anywhere in the state, with an average time of just 4:05 minutes.
Kings Cross – 5:16 minutes — and Inner West PACs – 5:41 minutes – had the next quickest response times.
Surry Hills and Sydney City were also high on the list for urgent calls responded to within 12 minutes.
Impressively, the regional police districts of Riverina, Orana Mid-Western and Central West were equal to their city counterparts, responding to 82 per cent of urgent calls within 12 minutes.
The state average for urgent call-outs to Police last financial year was 10:47, a drop from 10:40 in 2019/20.
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