Big southern team in police revamp

Rockingham and Kwinana will fall under the new Mandurah policing district in a restructuring of the force announced last week.

The wider metropolitan region will have eight policing districts, with Rockingham, Kwinana, Mandurah, Pinjarra and Dwellingup all in the same catchment area. The Mandurah policing region is the biggest at 2382sqkm.

The change will come into effect from July 1 and will also see the amalgamation of the local policing and response teams.

Police commissioner Chris Dawson said the new districts would better align with established local government and emergency management boundaries.

“The new district structure will provide greater connectivity and communication with police and their local community,” he said.

“There will be more police officers in local police stations.”

Police Minister Michelle Roberts said the changes were positive because the previous Frontline 2020 model had failed to reduce crime and had put officers under considerable pressure.

Premier Mark McGowan said it would localise services.

“The police commissioner has created a range of districts — it means there will be more localised policing,” he said. “Rockingham and Kwinana will be in the Mandurah district, which basically means more local police at local police stations doing traditional policing rather than the Frontline 2020 model, which had the reverse outcome.”

Mr Dawson urged anyone needing police help to call 000 or 131 444, saying mobile numbers for local police teams were no longer in use.