SA Police review service for the APY Lands

Police are reviewing services across SA’s remote Aboriginal lands amid concerns officers are unable to help in emergencies.

SA Premier Stephen Marshall with police officers Shane Kenney, left, and Jordan Ausserlechner, both from Amata.

Police are reviewing services across South Australia’s remote Aboriginal lands amid increasing concerns officers are unable to help in emergencies.

The review into the provision of policing services across the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, an arid region of more than 103,000sq m in South Australia’s far northwest, comes more than a year after police said there was no need for extra resources.

However, an SA Police spokeswoman told The Australian a review of the provision of policing services across the APY Lands was under way to look at how to ­“improve service delivery into these communities”.

As reported by The Australian yesterday, residents and community leaders have called for a permanent police presence in the APY Lands community of Fregon, 490km southwest of Alice Springs, where remote area nurse Gayle Woodford was abducted, raped and murdered in 2016.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, accompanied by The Australian, visited Fregon last week while on a three-day visit to the APY Lands, his first since forming government in March. Entry to the APY Lands requires a permit granted by a self-governing executive body.

APY Lands general manager Richard King said “it would be good to have a police station at Fregon”, the most dysfunctional of the six main communities. About 2200 people live on the APY Lands. There are 23 police officers based on the Lands, with a permanent police presence in the communities of Mimili, Ernabella, Amata, Umuwa, and the homeland of Murputja.

Six of 10 full-time police community constable positions ­remain vacant, with only one position filled since June last year. Child sexual abuse and domestic violence are major problems, along with gambling.

“We really need to ask the question, ‘Are we about policing the community or are we about community policing?’ ” Mr King said. “I prefer community policing. If you can get the people on side and work with the people to make the changes then the changes are going to be lasting. If you just rock up every time something happens then you’ll be policing the community forever and a day without addressing fundamental issues.”

Mr Marshall said small populations and vast distances made policing difficult. “There’s been a very significant increase in police presence on the APY Lands over the last decade — I still think there is further opportunity for enhancing the police presence,” he said.

Uniting Communities Aboriginal policy and advocacy manager Sue Tilley has previously said police stations on the Lands were “like fortresses” and community residents were “unable to access the station to report an issue”.