COUNCILS on the south coast of NSW and in suburban Melbourne forking out big bucks to cover their police have a local council concerned it could become the norm.
Coolamon Shire Council has experienced problems with police presence in the past and yesterday policing issues were once again brought up at the ordinary council meeting on the back of reports in a coastal newspaper.
Recently, Shoalhaven Council on the south coast spent almost $70,000 to secure a crime prevention van for the shire and an additional ten police officers for the summer period.
Council's general manager, Terrey Kiss, said smaller shires in the area already have problems with police numbers and the responsibility of providing police is that of the State Government.
"The price councils have to pay, or give some pecuniary benefit, to get police is wrong," Mr Kiss said.
"Local government shouldn't be doing these sort of things."
In his report to council, Mr Kiss noted that Coolamon has made numerous representations regarding police numbers and the system of policing in the shire, generally to no avail. He also reinforced that Coolamon is not alone in that regard, and said it is frustrating "the State Government now appear to be putting a price on policing services" and "it is hoped that the solution to this issue is not that local government must pay if they are after additional policing services".
If it came down to it, Mr Kiss said it would be virtually impossible for smaller councils like his to start paying for their police.
"We don't have the money to do it, we don't have the resources to have the private security," he said.
"We're concerned about it but it shouldn't be something we have to pay for."
Finding an officer in the town can be difficult, and even though highway patrol cars swing through the communities every day, Mr Kiss said the town is still lacking in day-to-day policing.
"Community policing can't be replaced by highway patrol and I don't give a stuff what they say," Mr Kiss said.
"(But) We can see highway patrol is all necessary and needed. Look, we've got kids around and there's a bit of vandalism, the normal problems in the community, they used to be solved (by a resident officer)."
The numbers game is a problem across the state, Mr Kiss conceded, but being down in strength in smaller stations has a larger impact than in bigger centres.
"When I came here there were two police officers stationed in Coolamon and working in Coolamon, there was one stationed and in Ganmain and one policeman stations in Ardlethan and working in Ardlethan," he said.
"Now there's one in Ganmain and one in Coolamon working out of Junee, and one in Ardlethan working out of either Narrandera or Temora.
"If you take one officer out of a station of one, we're 100 per cent down on our numbers."
On Monday night, Melbourne's Frankston City Council voted to employ eight security guards for a six-month trial period to patrol several areas within the city, as well as investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to increase a number of staff resources. The trial alone comes at a cost of $250,000.
Wentworth Shire Council, in the state's far west, also considered the private policing move at their meeting on Wednesday night.
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