Thursday 14 December 2017

More Police on the Ground in Maitland

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Maitland Police are expected to be getting a welcome boost to their ranks.

An offer from senior management for ten new officers is expected to be endorsed today.

It comes after the local area command took industrial action in November with frustration over police numbers reached a boiling point.

Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison said it's a good start, but more officers are needed.

"We're very happy that it's looking like we will get our ten new police in Maitland. We were looking for 20 but I'll give credit where credit is due and I'm pleased the government has recognised this and we're just hoping we'll get an announcement on the other ten shortly,"

"Maitland grows by 4 to 5 people every single day, we're the fastest growing community outside of Sydney. Our police numbers have not risen with our population. There's an opportunity in the re-engineering to address some of that, that they add those extra numbers in. That's a really important shift for us," said Jenny Aitchison.

Jenny Aitchison said originally the proposal was some of Maitland's senior officers would be moved onto other roles, and their positions would be filled by junior officers on the ground.

Nevertheless, she's just happy that at least for now there are more boots on the ground.

Maitland Police Station Image triplem.com.au