Mandurah police numbers to drop following WA district restructure

While WA Police would not confirm how many personnel the local station would lose, the Mandurah Mail understands it to be between 20-25 police officers. 

It comes as a result of an operational restructure, which sees the four metropolitan districts split into eight smaller districts. 

“Some of the policing sub-districts within the Mandurah District have had new boundary alignments and resource allocations to this district have been considered based on current demand,” a Police Media spokesman said.  

“The numbers allocated to police stations will not be released, however there are no cuts to frontline policing services under the restructure.

“Mandurah Police Station has been provided resources that are considered appropriate to meet demand.” 

The spokesman said after the new changes take effect, Mandurah Police Station will have more officers than it did prior to the current structure when it came in 2013.

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Officers across the metropolitan region – including those in Mandurah – have already engaged with a preferential process for their reallocation, and been provided with their new location or role ready for implementation.  

The new policing structure – which was announced by Police Commissioner Chris Dawson last month – will take effect in the Mandurah and Fremantle regions from July 2. The other districts including Perth, Midland, Mirrabooka, Joondalup, Armadale and Cannington will take effect from July 16.

Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup said the drop in officer numbers would see “a real net reduction” of police on the ground in Mandurah, and he feared the impact it would have on the community. 

“I think the knock-on effect is going to be significant,” he said.  

“This is not a community which needs less police; we need more police and that's what should have been happening.

“There's been some awful things which have happened over the last couple of days in Mandurah but we all know there's some challenges which we need to confront as a community, and stand together on and make sure we can respond to issues like crime and drug-induced behaviour and anti-social behaviour, and police are they are the most important part of that.”

Mr Kirkup said he believed Mandurah Police did a “fantastic job” and that crime was on the way down. 

“It was actually on a decrease and that was in no small part to the work the police officers here do locally,” he said.  

“What that means is that if we lose 20-25 police officers from Mandurah, there's going to be a lot more pressure on those police officers that do remain.

“I think there's a chance that as this population grows, there's going to be a real issue in terms of safety and security.

“I'm very concerned about what this means for our community.”

Mandurah MP David Templeman was contacted for comment. 

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