Graphic images show the battle police officers face with drug-affected people across regional NSW

BLOODIED and battered, this police officer was pushed down stairs during a domestic violence incident fuelled by the drug ice.The police union released the photo and vision of an arrest in an extraordinary step to highlight the havoc that ice is wreaking in regional communities.

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BLOODIED and battered, this police officer was pushed down stairs during a domestic violence incident fuelled by the drug ice.

The police union yesterday released the photo in an extraordinary step to highlight the havoc the drug is wreaking in regional communities.

In an escalation of its push to secure more officers­, the NSW Police Association­ also mapped out the areas with soaring numbers of meth addicts and dwindling police resources.

The officer sustained a large laceration to his head after he fell down a set of stairs when a 22-year-old woman allegedly jumped on his back as he attended an incident in Muswellbrook.

The young officer pictured responded to a call-out at Muswellbrook six weeks ago when he was attacked and pushed down a flight of stairs.

The senior constable is now on restricted duties — working just two hours a day.

A 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man are before the courts over the incident.

Police Association head Tony King said the combination of ice and domestic violence was frequently escalating into confrontations and putting enormous pressure on police.

“Every police officer knows how all-pervasive ice has become,” Mr King said.

“It dominates our work; it has links to domestic violence, mental health incidents, road fatalities, house and business break-ins, organised crime and it is destroying lives.”

The association also released Polair footage from an incident at a Central Coast home in April 2017 that shows five officers restraining an ice user, who they feared was going to attack his mother.

Screen grabs from Polair vision show a man affected by the drug ice struggling with a woman at a home on the Central Coast.

Five officers were in attendance trying to arrest the man during a domestic incident at the Central Coast home.

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The association wants an immediate doubling of officer numbers dealing directly with ice manufacture and supply — an extra 72 officers in regional NSW and 42 in Sydney.

It also released a list of crystal-meth regional hot-spots which shows that the number of drug incidents in the bush is three times higher than in the city.

Since taking over as Police Commissioner, Mick Fuller has established a number of Regional Enforcement Squads targeting drug manufacturing in regional areas — a move supported by the association.

He also initiated high-risk specialist domestic violence units, leading to a reduction in incidents across the state.

It takes five officers to restrain the man and get him to a waiting paddy wagon on the Central Coast.

But the association said these units are staffed with officers­ moved from other areas, resulting in “ghost police’’ who are still listed as working in a command but who have been taken away from general duties policing. “Local police are so stretched that they’re drowning just dealing with the symptoms of ice and users rather than focusing­ their efforts on the supply chain,” Mr King said.

The statistics show that Narrandera has the highest rate of amphetamine use or possession in NSW at 502 per 100,000 people, even higher than Sydney at 476.3.

The next regions were Moree Plains, Edward River and Gilgandra.

The Police Association will make law and order a major election issue, calling for an extra 2500 police in its Back The Blue campaign.

“The state government has a choice — it can either sit back and watch while this drug continues to take hold of our communities, or it can listen­ to the police on the ground and deliver the additional resources we need to keep our streets safe,” Mr King said. “Our communities are crying out for action, and all we as police are asking for are the resources we need to keep our communities safe.”

Caitlyn Taylor beat ice addiction and hopes to become a youth worker. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Nowra’s Caitlyn Taylor, 21, beat ice addiction at Sir David Martin Foundation’s Triple Care Farm, saying that the program — which is trying to raise $280,000 with its Abseil For Youth — saved her life.

“I started smoking weed when I was in high school … and then that turned into party drugs and ice,” she said.

“When you become addicted­ you will do anything to get the money for drugs, you become a different person and you don’t care about anything else but the drugs.” Ms Taylor, who now hopes to become a youth worker, encouraged people struggling with any addiction to seek help.

To help the association’s Back The Blue campaign visit: pansw.org.au/resources/campaigns/back-the-blue