Member for Armadale Tony Buti will ramp up his fight for more police and a 24-hour police station in Armadale this Saturday with a public rally through the Armadale CBD.
Dr Buti held a rally in May 2013 attended by hundreds of residents demanding a 24-hour station but WA Police and the State Government have held firm saying opening the station all day would mean police off the beat.
Dr Buti said he was holding the march to reinforce the community’s desire and demand for a 24/7 public access enhanced police station.
“I want to make it clear we’re not arguing just for a 24/7 public access police station as the end game, what we want is to have more police stationed out in Armadale and we want Armadale to be the centre of an enhanced police station as we have in Cannington,” he said.
“It seems absurd that the south east metro police district is the only metro police district with one 24/7 station when one considers the crime statistics in the corridor.
“We’re saying we want police on the beat and we want more police services to be stationed at Armadale.”
Armadale officer in charge Senior Sergeant Glenn Spencer said he supported Dr Buti’s right to call for the station but he did not believe the area needed one at this time
“As it currently stands no but in time that may change and with the new complex that may change and again that’s an operational decision by the commissioner of police that we’ve made in the fullness in time,” he said.
He said the other police districts had two stations because they were all two districts combined in recent years where as the south-east district has not merged with any other district.
Snr Sgt Spencer said he would still rather see police on the beat.
“Historically the police station used to be 24-hours and back in 2004/05 that was changed and that was changed as a result of a survey over a period of time that measured how many people came to the police station,” he said.
“What we found is that the majority of people that came to the police station were coming for things they could report online such as crashes or that they were reporting on bail.
“So it’s an expensive resource to provide to a person that we’re accusing of a serious crime to make their reporting easier.”
This Saturday’s rally starts at 10am at the southern end of Jull Street Mall and will travel to Memorial Park where there will be guest speakers.
For more information contact Dr Buti’s office on 9495 4877.
