Police: You have to let us actually be cops

NSW’s top cop says police officers must stop picking up the work of other government agencies so they can better do what they signed up to do – fight crime.

Exclusive: NSW’s top cop says police officers must stop picking up the work of other government agencies so they can better do what they signed up to do – fight crime.

“We are trying to be everything for everybody, filling gaps and picking up the pieces where others are absent or have bailed,” NSW Commissioner Karen Webb told her troops this week.

“The demand for our services continues to grow … the demands are more diverse, complex and time-consuming. If we don’t change something we will tie ourselves in knots and ­become ­impotent.”

Commissioner Webb was speaking to delegates at a NSW Police Association Conference held in Wollongong, where union chief Kevin Morton called on Premier Chris Minns to take work away from police that clearly doesn’t belong to them.

“When I joined the police, you were given a police uniform and you enforced the law. Today we may as well give our officers a kit bag full of different uniforms that they may have to put on,” Mr Morton said.

Top cops are calling for officers to be allowed to focus on their main duties: Picture: The Sunday Telegraph/Digitally altered image

“All over NSW, officers have come to work and at some point during that shift or due to the lack of available experts, they will be expected to be mental health clinicians, ambulance paramedics, relationship counsellors, prison guards, youth workers, WorkCover investigators, family law solicitors, RSPCA inspectors, national parks and wildlife officers, insurance data collectors, probation and parole officers and so many more jobs that we have inherited over the years,” Mr Morton said.

“Why in 2024 are NSW police sitting with juvenile offenders who have been in custody for months and taking them to court appearances all over the state?

“Why in 2024 do police have to sit with adults in custody and bail refused who have been hospitalised because of where the hospital is located?

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said officers are expected to fill to many job roles. Picture: Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

“Why in 2024 can a local Mental Health team call the local police station and have them check on a patient who is refusing to take his or her medications?

“Why in 2024 do police have to drive bail refused prisoners around the state because corrective services cannot pick them up?

“In 2024 why is Mr and Mrs Citizen calling police and having to wait because their local police are elsewhere doing a non-police function.”

Mr Morton said police in 2024 were not police any more, they were “the problem solver for everyone else”.

He urged Mr Minns to “get around a table” with his ministers and say: “The NSW Police Force are no longer the problem-solvers for everyone else’s portfolio. The solutions lie with them”.

“Tell them that police are going back to the streets to enforce the law and keep communities safe and that they have your full support for doing this.”

Mr Minns told the conference he took on board everything Mr Morton said in regards to the difficult role of the modern day-police officer.

Commissioner Webb said it was true police had filled a void for many years.

“We are very good at picking up work that is not truly ours. We have to be better at putting down and stop doing work that does not belong in our space,” she said.

“We can no longer afford to be complacent or complicit with all the things that are chewing up our valuable resources. We need to drive the change we want.”

Mr Minns told the delegates he would take on board Mr Morton’s concerns about police being stretched too thin.

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