Orana Mid-Western Police District commander Superintendent Peter McKenna says the targeting of officers will not be tolerated in the wake of a spate of incidents in recent weeks.
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An incident in Sydney last week where a detective was stabbed while trying to arrest an offender has put officer safety firmly in the spotlight, but it is a problem that isn’t confined just to the metropolitan areas.
Over the past few weeks in the local region officers involved in the pursuit of Ben Biffin had to take evasive action after being driven at, another officer was dragged by a vehicle while trying to deal with the driver, knives have been pulled during incidents and earlier in the week a vehicle was the subject of a graffiti attack.
“There has never been a time of greater vigilance required by police,” Supt McKenna said.
“You look at what happened in Sydney last week and that is what police are confronted with every day, and it’s not confined to Sydney.
“It’s what we’re trained for, and officer survival skills and techniques certainly come into play more often than we would like.”
The use of those skills is something Supt McKenna would prefer his officers didn’t have to call on, and he said the repercussions would be severe for those who assault or abuse police.
Describing the problem as part of a ‘societal change’, he said the problems came down to a lack of respect from within an element of the community.
“In regional areas, most people are good, law-abiding citizens who respect the work done by police,” he said.
“But the societal change I have noticed in my time has us at a point where there is an element of hoodlums and criminals who don’t.
“In saying that though, we won’t be changing our style and strategy and we won’t put up with people abusing or assaulting our officers in the line of duty.
“Anyone in this district who lays a hand on police or tries to injure police, will find themselves locked up and sitting in a cell.
“If it was a normal member of the community going about their business, we wouldn’t want to see that kind of behaviour aimed towards them and I’d like to think that for most people the same applies for police when they’re on duty trying to keep the community safe.”
As for the graffiti issue from earlier in the week, Supt McKenna described the incident where lewd language was written on a car as ‘gutless’.
“There’s an element out there with no respect and who are gutless,” he said.
“They do something like that, then hide and run away.
“We were able to clean it off pretty easily, it was just done with texta, but it shows the mindset of some people.”