TEN per cent of police cars are set to be pulled from Perth streets

[csv8]

TEN per cent of police cars are set to be pulled from Perth streets under a State Government plan to save up to $42.2 million over four years.

The fleet reduction strategy, announced on Sunday, included plans to cut the Government fleet by 10 per cent, or about 140 vehicles.

But Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said the cuts were putting the public at risk.

"Cars are not a luxury item when it comes to policing – they are the frontline equipment in the battle against crime," Ms Quirk said.

"This decision will result in longer response times to crimes and will place a further strain on limited police resources."

The scheme is set to begin immediately, and cars will be sold through the weekly Government auction process once their current lease is up.

RAC spokesman Matt Brown slammed the move, saying having police cars on the road was an essential part of the state's road safety strategy.

“The community demands an assurance from the government that there will be no cuts in the number of police vehicles patrolling our metropolitan and country roads,” Mr Brown said.

“The savings being proposed in cutting the number of police vehicles are illusory at best.

“The cuts to the total government fleet are expected to deliver savings of around $40 million over 4 years – or an average of $10 million a year.

“But the government has estimated that every road death in Western Australia costs the economy $1.8 million, while serious injuries cost the economy an average of $488,000 each.

“The government’s proposed savings would be wiped out if there are an additional three deaths and nine serious injuries on our road.

“It’s a completely false economy and reflects the failed short term thinking which has consistently undermined our efforts to reduce our road toll and has seen Western Australia maintain the worst road safety record of any State.

“The government needs to explain how it will meet the cut in vehicle numbers while maintaining these essential frontline services.”

Treasurer Troy Buswell said the fleet reduction strategy was part of the $1.1 billion of savings measures over four years identified in the first stage of the Economic Audit.

The total Government fleet is made up of 11,772 cars, with 1165 of them to be cut by 2012.

my comment...What a stupid idea !!! more police cars on the road reduces the crime rate etc.

[FPV+fteT3]

The cars will go but the cameras will increase that will stop crime and accidents and speeding and hoons etc cause we can photograph them and send a fine in the mail. All jokes aside what is wrong with state governments and policing is it all about revenue or real laws and justice? All state governments need to take a long look at themselves and get into reality with laws sentences and effective policing.

[Road_Warrior]

The government is determined to find its 3% savings across the board, and no department is safe. Not even my little muppet department that you wouldn't even know existed.

Pulling cop cars off the roads is a downright stupid idea - just the thing we need in this city where violent assaults and crime is starting to spiral out of control.

[mcnamg]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

The government is determined to find its 3% savings across the board, and no department is safe. Not even my little muppet department that you wouldn't even know existed.

Pulling cop cars off the roads is a downright stupid idea - just the thing we need in this city where violent assaults and crime is starting to spiral out of control.

The stupid thing about it this is how it has been implemented. They have just applied a 10% rule to all departments whereas there are certain government departments that can afford to lose more vehicles than this and others that are just simply overspending on the wrong types of vehicles or a little of both for others.

An example of this is the Disability Services Commission. They have a team of physios and ot's and local area co-ordinators who are broken into regional offices. Each office has a pool of vehicles that are used by these staff when they need to go out to visit patients in their homes or workplaces. I asked our LAC about this and she said that they encourage most people to visit the office and most of the time there is about 10 cars in use at any one time. Usually there is only one person using each car as well and they dont need to carry anything more than a small store box with them to home visits.

This ****es me off becuase the police are being asked to lose 140 vehicles that get used all the time when places like DSC have these vehicles sitting here not being used but they still only need to give up 10 percent of their fleet when they could realistically lose up to 50% or more of their fleet. If car shortages became an issue areas like this could reimburse staff for use of their own vehicles which cant be done with police.

This doesnt even take into account the fact that a lot of departments such as DSC could also look at smaller cars like the Yaris or Getz to replace their Corollas as they arent required. There is other ways to reduce the fleet costs other than just simply slashing a set number of cars.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Maybe they should keep them a bit longer like most fleets do, instead of changing them over at 40,000 why not keep them till they have done 80,000....

[Road_Warrior]

They do.

[EDManual]

maybe give the city police scooters? and if they need a car/panelvan for carrying someone off in, they radio for it.

Really, having the cops on foot in the city isnt that bad. Out in the country is where they couldnt cut the car fleet.

[irlewy86]

WA Police are short funded by about $200 million each year and now they're cutting more.

Royalties for regions should be kicked in to prevent cars from being reduced in rural areas. And well to remove vehicles from Perth is just stupid.

[mcnamg]

Originally Posted by EDManual

maybe give the city police scooters? and if they need a car/panelvan for carrying someone off in, they radio for it.

Really, having the cops on foot in the city isnt that bad. Out in the country is where they couldnt cut the car fleet.

The police have just cut their motorcycle fleet due to budget cuts so doubt they will invest in scooters.

[platinumXR]

State Governments whether ALP or LIB are loathed to spend any money on Essential Services for whatever reason.

Perhaps someone can shed some coherent light on this for me.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by platinumXR

State Governments whether ALP or LIB are loathed to spend any money on Essential Services for whatever reason.

Perhaps someone can shed some coherent light on this for me.

Coalition Government that came to power in WA in November 2008 did so on the basis of forming a partnership with the Nationals, a cornerstone of which was Brendan Grylth Royalties for Regions ****fest

In addition to mining royalties, in order to pay for the program without sending the state broke and fagging up the state's AAA credit rating, Treasury ordered all government departments to find 3% budget savings across the board. No agency was quarantined from this although "front line emergency services" were meant to be exempt from this cut, but who really knows with all the crap these trogdolytes on both sides of the parliamentary chamber continually spout about it.

We've already found our 3%, cancelled a software development program and that shut them up, hyuk :

[ozrunner]

...But Opposition police spokeswoman Margaret Quirk said the cuts were putting the public at risk.

"Cars are not a luxury item when it comes to policing – they are the frontline equipment in the battle against crime," Ms Quirk said.

"This decision will result in longer response times to crimes and will place a further strain on limited police resources."

Gawd typical opposition response from a mob that only knew how to tax you even though we had a booming economy.

There will ne NO reductions in Police patrols etc and the Govt has said that.

Anyone that has seen the multitude of cars parked at the various Regional Offices etc will see where the planned cuts are aimed at. All the new UNMARKED Govt Camry's used by the various senior officers to drive from home to work and no different from the host of similar cars in many Depts used by boffins for the same purpose, never mind their front line services.

Go get em I say.

[GTP owner]

Maybe they could catch the bus? They would probably get to call-outs quicker

[grey_esp]

This is a joke. Next thing they will be asking cops to use their own cars for call outs. They should be spending more money on the police department and giving them more cars and more staff not reducing. Idiots run this state! Maybe these pollies should leave their homes in Dalkeith and Cott etc of a night and take a drive around some of the eastern suberbs. Do they think that because they dont see crime then its not happening?? again, IDIOTS.
I just had a thought, Maybe they could give the cops their statesmans to use as patrol cars.

[mik]

perhaps they will down grade the fleet to something smaller.....greener...

[Road_Warrior]

Already done that, they've got those poxy diesel Astras (which for GD use are fine)

[fordOwner]

great. Im not looking forward to when I need the police immediatly. They have cut the motorbikes from 90 down to 30 or something stupid like that too.