The Police Association of NSW is today calling for an urgent increase in the number of police to resource investigation and monitoring of child sex-offences and people on the child protection register.
PANSW Executive Member Jason Hogan suggests the minimum standard should be one police officer dedicated to monitoring every 30 offenders. At the moment, responsibility to monitor those on the child protection register falls to local police, who are already stretched to capacity.
“In the region, we need an additional 275 police in our local commands to ensure we can monitor those on the Child Protection Register properly,” Jason Hogan said.
“We know there are over 4000 offenders on the Child Protection Register statewide, and around 595 in the Southern region, but only a fraction of those are monitored regularly due to the fact that we simply don’t have enough police to do the job.
“We know we need a ratio of one dedicated full-time officer to every 30 offenders to be able to proactively manage paedophiles on the list.
“The legislation in this area is strong. Police have the powers to actively monitor and stop these offenders targeting our children, but we just don’t have the resources to do it properly.
The Police Association of NSW says we also urgently need more detectives in our Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad.
“At present, across the State of NSW detectives in these squads are stretched beyond capacity, dealing with the 9527 reports that require 4583 investigations every year,” Jason Hogan said.
“These detectives do amazing and disturbing work arresting and prosecuting paedophiles, but we need more of them. A further 101 Detectives are required in these squads in Sydney and around the state.
“It’s not an either/or situation. We need more police to lock up those convicted, but every conviction means another person on the Child protection Register, so we also need police in our commands and districts to monitor them in our communities.
“This area of policing has been under resourced for years. Past decisions have left our children vulnerable. It’s time to resource these squads and our districts and commands so we can keep our children safe.”
Key facts:
There are currently approx 4000 known offenders on the Child Protection Register in NSW.
There are approx. 595 known offenders on the Child Protection Register in the Southern region.
The reoffending rate within four years is 46%
There are 201 people on the Child Protection Register whose whereabouts are unknown
There are approx. 80 unidentified child sex offenders whose DNA is on the database
There are 62 offenders whose DNA is untested
There are 9527 reports that require 4583 investigation every year
Over 4500 charges are laid a year.
150 dedicated Detectives are required in Police Area Commands and Police Districts to intrusively monitor the growing numbers on the register.
12 additional Detectives are required in the Central Child Protection Registry to ensure legislation is utilised to its full force.
67 additional Detectives are required in Child Abuse Units to investigate and prosecute child sex offenders.
16 additional Detectives are required in the Child Exploitation Internet Unit to target on-line predators.
7 additional surveillance operatives are required to assist in targeting and monitoring.
Note: the above figures are statewide (NSW) figures, unless otherwise stated. Local figures are not available for release
