POLICE — SWORN
OFFICERS
1073. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the minister representing the
Minister for Police:
I refer to Legislative Council
question without notice 975, the answer to which referred to Legislative
Assembly question on notice 5094 and which did not provide the information I asked
for.
(1) Can the
minister confirm that the approved strength referred to in part (c) of question
on notice 5094 is based on FTE positions?
(2) Can the minister clarify what relationship the
actual headcount figure referred to in part (c) of question on notice 5094 has with FTE positions; and, if it has
no reference, can the minister provide the FTE equivalent?
(3) At 1 January
2018, 1 January 2019 and currently, what was the number of sworn officers
employed by the WA Police Force, by FTE and headcount?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of this question. The following answer has been provided to me by
the Minister for Police.
(1)–(3) The
approved strength of 6 395 is the number of FTE for which the Western Australia
Police Force is funded. In the time available to provide a response, the police
officer headcount, as reported annually in the Western Australia Police Force
annual report, was 6 342 in 2016; in 2017, 6 430; and in 2018, 6 459.
The Western Australia Police Force
advises that the police officer headcount at 1 September 2019 is 6 474, or 6 274.5
FTE. There are 169 recruits in eight schools in the academy, with more recruit
schools to commence before the end of the year. By December 2019, recruits will
have been engaged to replace the police officers who chose to take a voluntary
severance.