Mr Whelan said 50 to 80 officers were leaving the Police Service each month, a factor the recruitment strategy took into account. In May, another 323 police would graduate from the Goulburn Police Academy. The Government's March 1999 election promise was to fund 1,000 new police positions and to release 1,110 officers from desk jobs by using more civilian employees in the Police Service. We are on target. In March 1999, the actual strength was 13,521.
Police have mandatory drug and alcohol testing after critical incidents such as shootings.
Now forensically I'm told that it takes a long time for cannabis to dissipate through the system. In other developments yesterday, criminologist Dr Don Weatherburn refused to confirm or deny briefing the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils on dramatically rising crime trends in southern Sydney. In March 29 briefing notes obtained by the Opposition, Dr Weatherburn, the director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, is alleged to have told the meeting that break and enters had risen by 42 per cent in the Randwick local government area, by 31 per cent in South Sydney, and 34 per cent in Woollahra. Vehicle theft had risen in Sutherland and Woollahra and theft from a vehicle had jumped 32.4 per cent - from 300 to 500 reported offences. Dr Weatherburn said he would not confirm the notes from a confidential meeting, and would release the crime figures from January 1999 to December 2000 on April 18.