“We do the best we can with what we’ve got”.
This was the response from
Deniliquin Local Area Command Superintendent Craig Jackson at a Balranald Shire
Council meeting when asked why more police resources had not been allocated to a
crime spree in Balranald.
More than 20 cases of theft, thefts from motor
vehicle and breaking and entering have been recorded in Balranald in the past
four months.
One business has been hit four times in three months, and
firearms are among those on a long list of items stolen.
A lack of policing
resources and youth offending rates have been a long-running issue for the
community, with a Crime Prevention Strategy begun mid-2011.
But the spate of
crime in recent months brought the issue to a head, with four of Deniliquin
Local Area Command’s most senior cops arriving this week to listen to residents’
concerns.
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (19/4/13).
