South Sydney police boss Andrew Holland says merger made us stronger
The inaugural boss of the South Sydney Police Area Command says the biggest strength of the new command has been the number of police at his disposal, one month on from the merger.
Southern Courier
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The inaugural boss of the South Sydney Police Area Command says the biggest strength of the new command is the number of police at his disposal, one month on from the merger.
Botany Bay and Redfern police were merged in late July to form South Sydney police.
Superintendent Andrew Holland spoke to the Courier and said it had been a fairly smooth transition and he was enjoying having more staff at his disposal.
“The greatest strength is the staffing I now have available,” he said.
“Where previously I think both commands would have suffered a little bit from (not) having the right number of police to target certain offences, now I have that opportunity.
“I have a very large general duty staff which allows me to target day-to-day duties and also proactive duties.”
While no new staff have been allocated, he said by merging the two commands he had 225 police working across the entire region, including a proactive team of 30.
“Both commands had proactive crime teams before but I think Redfern had four (police) and Botany had four,” he said.
“Now we have 30 in a proactive crime team and they can be deployed as plain-clothed or uniformed police.”
He said it meant when trends in crimes were identified police could be pushed into an area to tackle the issue, including in fast growing areas such as Mascot.
Supt Holland added drugs was a huge issue in the command and that was a major focus for South Sydney police with a dedicated drug team working across the command.
“Botany in the old command did not have a drug team but Redfern did,” he said.
“And we have been able to increase the size of that team through the number of staff we have (under the merge).”
He said a challenge in the merge was training staff to handle unique demands across the two old commands.
“In our first six months I will be training all my staff, especially the Redfern staff, how to deal with emergencies at the airport should we have one,” he said.
“And the difference for those who were from Botany is dealing with an Aboriginal community because Botany has a relatively small Aboriginal population and there is a much larger population in Redfern.
“So both sides of the old commands have different things they need to learn in the new command.”
Supt Holland — who was the commander at Redfern prior to the merge — added it has been an honour being the first commander of South Sydney.
“It is a real honour. Setting up the new command is obviously difficult but setting it up the way you want to do it is both an eye opener and gives you a sense of pride that you can put your stamp on the place,” he said.
Supt Holland said when he was not working he enjoyed watching rugby league and supporting the Wests Tigers, playing golf and spending time with his family.
Supt Holland has been in the police force for 34 years.
The command’s boundaries have been slightly changed with the southeastern border now stopping at Southern Cross Dr rather than Bunnerong Rd, meaning suburbs such as Daceyville, Pagewood and Eastgardens all fall under Eastern Beaches police.
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