BY THE beginning of next month there will be more police cars and officers on the beat in Tamworth.
The police association and Oxley Local Area commander Superintendent Clint Pheeney have reached a new agreement, which they believe will better serve the city.
The first-response agreement has been signed and police association officials say it will come into effect at the start of the next roster period.
Tamworth branch administrator Peter McMenamin said the recent allocation of 12 probationary constables for the Tamworth Police Station enabled the command to reach this new agreement.
“Effectively, all that’s changed here is the new first-response agreement will reflect the current workload that the Tamworth Police Station has,” Mr McMenamin said.
“This is what the branch has been campaigning for over the past four or so years.”
Mr McMenamin said the command was fortunate to be given the opportunity by police force executives to maintain the probationary constables as “over-strength” positions, meaning current vacancies among the ranks at the station would be filled by other means.
“What this new agreement will do is give us a wider coverage and a better ability to meet the needs of the command,” he said.
“We will have additional car crews on each day and it will increase from there, depending on our workload data for different days and time periods.”
Mr McMenamin said the long-running campaign at the Tamworth station was far from over, with the branch seeking increases in detectives’ positions and investigators for its target action group.
He said the station also needed an increase in domestic violence support and crime management unit police.
“The first-response agreement only goes towards those duties which are classified as first response. The branch is still pursuing, and still has ongoing negotiations for, further increases in staff,” he said.
He said hopes for more staff in other areas were hinging on an audit of the station conducted by NSW Police Force management, and the results of the Parsons Report into policing.