Police deny CHOGM impact

South Hedland police have back flipped, denying last week’s CHOGM meeting in Perth had a major effect on local crime rates.

In his regular column for the North West Telegraph, Senior Constable Ray Holt said figures for the three weeks leading up to October 23 indicated an increase from eight to 12 home burglaries in the first two weeks, and a drop to five in the third.

Sen. Const Holt also apologised for late police attendances over recent weeks and said it was regrettable the heads of government meeting had impacted on regional police resources.

He said staffing levels should return to normal this week.

Senior Sergeant Peter Pope admitted there was a “minor spike” but said overall burglaries were down 19.7 per cent in the period July 1 to October 23 compared to last year.

Sen. Sgt Pope said police maintained their minimum staffing level of six officers “at all times” despite several officers’ secondment to Perth, James Price Point in Broome and Nullagine.

He was tight lipped when asked if CHOGM impacted locally, saying it was a question for the general public.

“I know a number of our officers worked considerable overtime and it (CHOGM) will be felt in their pay packets … if CHOGM ran for two or three months people would be very tired, however, the period it was on for, the staff here catered for quite adequately by working additional hours when required,” Sen. Sgt Pope said.

Sen. Sgt Pope did concede that a number of call-outs were not attended “from the first call” but said incidents were prioritised by seriousness as a matter of course.

The South Hedland officer-in-charge said Sen. Const Holt received information about late police attendances “anecdotally”.

“We attend callouts on a priority basis and where life is being threatened we obviously rank that against property (theft) and disorderly behaviour,” Sen. Sgt Pope said.

“There were a couple of occasions that Ray and I have discussed that, yes we didn’t get there from the first call, however it’s because we’ve prioritised the jobs we were doing.

“It wouldn’t have mattered whether we had a dozen cars on the road at that particular time; it’s one of those idiosyncrasies of policing.”