Policing is contentious

Following an incident last year at the Colonial Bakers, policing on the Peninsula is now a contentious issue with local residents have expressing concerns about the numbers of Police operating in Woy Woy and whether they are sufficiently able to combat and control crime in the area.

Changes have been made to police operating procedures on the Central Coast that were originally recommended by a Royal Commission investigating the problem of how to improve the Police service.

However the implementation of some of the recommendations has proved controversial.

Locally there has been controversy due to a reduction in the number of officers stationed in Woy Woy Police Station and an increase in the number of squad cars operating from Gosford.

During the incident at the Colonial Bakery in Blackwell Rd, the police claim to have taken just 10 minutes to respond to the emergency.

But the incident was also an embarrassment for them because, despite one of the victims running for assistance to the Woy Woy police station, the sole police officer at the station told the victim he was obliged to remain at his post to answer emergency calls.

It was portrayed that he was afraid to leave the security of his station.

Because of this incident and general feeling about levels of crime on the Peninsula, the effect of these changes has become a matter of public debate between local politicians.

The debate has set Labor Member for Peats, Ms Marie Andrews, against the Central Coast-based Liberal MLC, Mr Michael Gallacher, who has organised a petition requesting the presence of more police on "general duties" at Woy Woy.

Ms Andrews asserts that the number of police on the Central Coast has risen and

will continue to rise.

She says that cars patrolling in the Peninsula have increased and that improvements in technology motivated the recent changes in operating procedures.

Ms Andrews also stated that although police patrol cars would be based in Gosford they would be patrolling the Peninsula and responding to emergency calls during these patrols.

She said she did not support the idea of officers based in Woy Woy station rather than patrolling in cars.

Mr Gallacher has criticised the centralisation of the policing system and the concentration of manpower in "super-stations" such as at Gosford.

He stated that officers based in Gosford would spend a greater amount of time there out of necessity, but also that the concentration of officers in one area was a barrier to "community policing" because they were unable to get to know the communities they were serving.

Ms Andrews and Mr. Gallacher also disagreed about the need for beat patrols; with Ms Andrews stating that they only prompted criminals to commit crimes elsewhere, and Mr. Gallacher insisting that one of the most effective crime deterrents was a highly visible police presence.

Henry Pfister, April 3