New model praised

Kwinana Senior Sergeant Glen Willers has given the thumbs up to a new policing model, saying it will be positive for the community.

The new model, set to come into play in September, will shake up the Peel district, with Peel administration officers relocated

to Myaree, police units created to address issues at a suburb level and response teams formed for daily police calls.

Sen. Sgt Willers said the new model would give Kwinana police the opportunity to work closely with the community.

“We will become a local policing team and we will be able to concentrate more on community engagement and investigating crime, which is something which will work immensely well for us,” he said.

“A lot of the daily response to police tasks will be done by either Rockingham, Mandurah or even Fremantle, which will leave us able to deal with the issues which impact on the community.”

Sen. Sgt Willers said he likened the policing model to those used in regional WA.

“They do it so well, they get to know the local people, they get to know the issues and they work with the people every single day,” he said.

“It will just allow us to do things we could never do in the past.

“We haven’t been able to work in the schools as much as we’d like to and we haven’t been able to work with other government agencies as much because we are just so busy responding.”