selling police stations (1 Viewer)

[rant]

THE New South Wales Government is offloading police stations in a fire sale of public land to fill dwindling coffers.
Nine police stations and another 200 buildings and parcels of land, including the Sydney Fish Markets, are now under the control of the Government's real estate agent.

Residents of Rockdale, Malabar, Mosman, Berowra and Brooklyn are angry they are being robbed of their police stations despite 20 murders in five years across those areas.

The Police Association said yesterday Earlwood, Canterbury, Mt Victoria and Blackheath were also in the sights of a Government desperate to sell $12 million worth of police stations.

Opposition finance spokesman Greg Pearce said it was the start of a massive $350 million sell-off of everything from schools and nursing homes to sports venues.
"People are always concerned about police stations going," he said.
"What they have here is cuts across the whole spectrum. When people realise what is being put on sale I think that will strike a chord as well."



...


He raised concerns over the State Property Authority - effectively the Government's real estate agent - acquiring 200 more properties from other departments, saying the move would make them easier to sell if the Government decides to do so.

"We are currently dealing with vandalism, graffiti and anti-social behaviour. How can they sell this station?" group organiser Carlos Da Rocha said.
Paul Hannen, of the Police Association, said he expected the list of police stations being considered for sale to grow.
He said officers at Brooklyn, where the station will be auctioned this month, and Berowra were as upset as the community.
"The officers are not happy with the closure of Brooklyn," Mr Hannen said.

Community anger over police station sell-off in NSW | The Australian

the money raised will go back to 'fighting crime'. discuss.

 

[staticsiscool]

number of police stations=/=crime fighting ability

 

[rant]

the point is that the locals no longer have access to the relative safety of a police station should they ever need it.

 

[staticsiscool]

the point is that the locals no longer have access to the relative safety of a police station should they ever need it.

they will have access to police from their local area command just like the rest of us who dont have a police station 5 mins away

 

[bigboyjames01]

stfu if your daddy voted labor.

 

[Mu5hi]

how ironic would it be if the police station turned into some mad crime lab lol

lol that would be funny.

FUCKING LABOUR, and 10 years down the track we rebuy it for double the value.

 

[Freedom_]

Privatize the police force.

 

[loquasagacious]

Police stations are an example where clear economies of scale and scope exist for centralisation, this will reduce the cost of policing a given area which is a good thing. This means more money is available to spend on other things or to better police a given area.

Maintaining several small police stations in an area is more expensive than maintaining one larger police station for many reasons:
- Less staff required to be sitting at the front desk of police stations
- Utilities cost is less
- Information and Communication Technology is simplified which reduces cost and risk of failure
- Maintenance cost is less
- etc etc

Realistically the response time will not be greatly affected because response time is a sum of: notification time (000 to police) + preparation (getting ready) + drive time. The drive time may be increased slightly however that is only one of three factors and the notification time is likely improved due to improved ICT.

Also one large station open around the clock is clearly better placed to respond than multiple smaller stations open fewer hours.

 

[loquasagacious]

hey constable, im afraid im gona have to arrest u for displaying so much knowledge on this issue lol

Nothing more than some reasoned guesswork. Where do you stand on the issue?

 

[Serius]

I used to have a police station about 5mins walk away, that got shut down maybe 10 years ago so the two next closest ones are about 2hrs walk away each. I dont really feel less safe because the police station was shut down, but i do feel less safe because police patrols no longer go into my suburb, they just skirt along the edge via the princes highway. I guess both stations no longer feel like our area is their responsability, or atleast it is not important at all [despite being the main area for organised crime, drug dealing, and having higher violence than anywhere else nearby]

 

[loquasagacious]

That seems to indicate a failure of policing relatively seperate to the closure of police stations. There is after all something seriously wrong with a police force if they will only patrol within a 5min walking radius of their station....

Then of course there is the question of whether patrolling is a good use of police resources? Due to the public housing the police patrol my current suburb however they have never patrolled any suburb I have previously lived in. And to be honest the patrols they do now consist of driving past the public housing once or twice a day - hardly high visibility/impact policing.

 

[Serius]

I think it was more about having the areas police force reduced by a third than them having a rule to only patrol a certain radius from the station, they simply dont have the resources they used to, and of course they are going to look out for their own suburbs first.

it just makes me think that number of police stations does = crime fighting ability, after all if the basic attitude of the remaining stations is going to be "woohoo we have more resources to patrol our OWN suburbs now and we can make them safer yay! fuck all those abondoned suburbs, lets make our own area safer yippee!" then its no wonder the abandoned areas feel shitty about it.

 

[TommySix]

I'm a Libertarian at heart and I promote any reduction in the state police SERVICE (they are NOT a force, a name change does not make them a force, they are here to SERVE, the Australian Defence FORCE is a force, the NSW Police 'Force' are a bunch of power tripping incompetent twits playing paramilitary in cargo pants and ugly caps) and that each citizen is ultimately responsible for his/her own safety and that laws especially with regards to excessive force in self defence as well as legitimate reasons for the ownership of a firearm should be changed to permit the effective practice of the above.

 

[loquasagacious]

I'm a Libertarian at heart and I promote any reduction in the state police SERVICE (they are NOT a force, a name change does not make them a force, they are here to SERVE, the Australian Defence FORCE is a force, the NSW Police 'Force' are a bunch of power tripping incompetent twits playing paramilitary in cargo pants and ugly caps) and that each citizen is ultimately responsible for his/her own safety and that laws especially with regards to excessive force in self defence as well as legitimate reasons for the ownership of a firearm should be changed to permit the effective practice of the above.

Well as a libertarian why isn't the military a SERVICE?

 

[TommySix]

Well as a libertarian why isn't the military a SERVICE?

Well you SERVE in the military don't you? Also, the military deserves the title of 'Force' as it is there to deal with external threats, not domestic law enforcement.

And no you don't need to be a libertarian to point that out.

 

[JClamp]

Maintaining several small police stations in an area is more expensive than maintaining one larger police station for many reasons:
- Less staff required to be sitting at the front desk of police stations
- Utilities cost is less
- Information and Communication Technology is simplified which reduces cost and risk of failure
- Maintenance cost is less
- etc etc

I figure that in the grand scheme of things, those costs are minute compared to salaries of actual police officers, equipment etc. These costs wouldn't be reduced lest the effectiveness of the police be minimised.

What I'm saying is, the difference in costs would be minimal and imo, the effectiveness of police would probably decrease.

idk

 

[Uncle]

They are selling off police property to get police property.

Virtual reality range for NSW Police - Technology - smh.com.au