Rodney Stevens

Crime across the Clarence electorate is always a hot topic come election time, so with just over three months until we head to the polls the Clarence Valley Independent asked candidates about policing.

Greens candidate Greg Clancy, Labor’s Leon Ankersmit and The Nationals Richie Williamson were all asked the following questions about the current situation and their solutions.

What current issues are you hearing about policing in the Clarence electorate and which locations are experiencing these problems?

If elected, what will you do to ensure adequate policing in the Clarence electorate and where would you like to see police stations manned 24/7?

Greens candidate for Clarence Greg Clancy acknowledged that policing across the entire Clarence Electorate was a complex issue.

“Policing is a complicated issue as there are a few different approaches,” he said. 

“We need sufficient policing numbers and police available at remoter areas, but I would much prefer to see more resources put into crime prevention.”

Mr Clancy said investing in carefully developed programs and services in communities has been shown to reduce crime, meaning less people in prison, fewer victims and safer, more caring communities.

“Justice reinvestment programs…programs to provide activities to kids (e.g., PCYC, Midnight Basketball) – so much cheaper to employ a few social workers with basketballs than putting kids into Acmena for 6 months,” he said.

Mr Clancy said he would be pushing for a 24-hour police presence in the Lower Clarence if elected.

“We need a 24-hour police presence in the Lower Clarence, it takes an hour for police from Grafton to respond to issues in Yamba – the only 24-hour police stations are at Sawtell, Coffs and Grafton.

“Why Sawtell and not Yamba or Maclean?”

Labor candidate for Clarence Leon Ankersmit said he had heard of a number of issues from a number of communities.

“I am told that police are sometimes slow to respond to after hours callouts especially in lower clarence and Richmond Valley locations- Yamba, Maclean, Lawrence, Iluka, Evan’s Head, Woodburn, Coraki.” he said.

“In Coraki there is currently a problem with car break-ins and hooning on motorbikes. Residents are complaining that police are just not there or not there fast enough, and the crimes are opportunistic.

“In Yamba, the problems include house break and enters and there as an anecdotal story last weekend that cars were stolen following a housebreak and police couldn’t attend until the following morning.

Labor is committed to improving working conditions for public service and community service roles including police to ensure that we stop seeing so many people leaving their jobs to find better work elsewhere.

Locals are outraged, Mr Ankersmit said, that policing in the Lower Clarence was now a daytime only service.

“If elected I will advocate for our electorate to get a review of policing and staffing of stations to ensure that there is adequate coverage after-hours.

“This is especially relevant during holiday peaks, but no less important all year round.

“I would like to see 24/7 police stationed in Evan’s Head, and either in Yamba or Maclean for the Lower Clarence.”

Nationals’ candidate for Clarence Richie Williamson said NSW Government made a commitment to increase our Police Force by an additional 1500 police officers at the start of this term of government.

“We were very fortunate to have Tony King, a local Grafton copper, as the President of the Police Association of NSW at that time,” he said. 

“Tony knew we needed extra coppers in the bush and Nationals Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis was instrumental in working with Tony as a conduit to Government to help negotiate a deal whereby regional NSW received its largest increase in Police Officers in decades.

“The two commands in the Clarence electorate – the Richmond and the Coffs/Clarence police districts, received an additional 46 police officers. 

“This is on top of new probational constables allocated to the two police districts each year.

Mr Williamson wouldn’t commit to getting additional police stations open around-the-clock, saying our communities have changed and so has policing.

“We have more police on the beat which means more 24/7 policing,” he said

“We have police stations in many of our regional communities but that doesn’t mean police are waiting for a crime to occur and a phone call to respond.

“Police are continually proactively patrolling crime hotspots.

“If a police station is unmanned phone calls are diverted to a central station and the nearest patrol car dispatched.” 

We can all help make our communities safer, Mr Williamson said.

“No level of crime is acceptable, we need to always be vigilant, and all crime needs to be reported,” he said.

“To have a safe community we must all do our bit and that includes community, police, the judiciary and the legislature.”