Police
After many years of inaction by successive State governments, our fight for two brand new police stations in western Lake Macquarie has been won.
The new Morisset Police Station was opened in 2016. It’s a base for general duties police as well as transport police officers and a dog squad.
The new police station at Toronto was completed in March 2017 and now operates a 24/7 station.
Both of these stations are state-of-the-art bases which provide our local police with the resources they need for modern-day policing. They are also linked to a brand new command headquarters at Belmont.
Since entering Parliament, I’ve also been able to secure substantial increases in police numbers for the Lake Macquarie Area Command, but the campaign for more continues.
I first met with the Police Minister in 2007 to point out the poor police-to-resident ratios. Within days the Minister announced an allocation of 23 extra police officers. The Coalition government allocated 18 more police in 2011, and another 19 to Morisset in 2015 when it became the regional base for the Police Transport Command (PTC).
The PTC works closely with local officers and this allocation of resources has improved police presence in western and southern Lake Macquarie.
Operational numbers in the Lake Macquarie Command are now about 200, according to monthly data posted on the NSW Police Force website.
The increase in resources in recent years is encouraging but the Lake still has less than half the police per head of population than some other area commands in the state.
Local police are doing a fantastic job in reducing crime which is reflected in annual statistics. Of course we can’t have police on every street corner, but I’ll continue to lobby for a greater share of resources so that Lake Macquarie remains a desirable and safe place to live.