Back the Blue: Oxley police fear potential disaster as statistics show property crime increase in Tamworth

"The police we have on the ground are working their heart and souls out every day and every night, but you can only stretch something so far," Tamworth's police union (PANSW) branch vice chair Terry Melville said.

"Our greatest fear is that someone is going to be seriously injured - fatally injured - because of this situation."

Tamworth residents regularly wake to the sound of sirens while officers work hard to make arrests as part of Operation Southbreak - the targeted operation designed to bust the group police believe are responsible.

"We get wins along the way and it puts the brakes on for a short time, but we need to have a permanent solution to this," PANSW Tamworth chair Brian Pegus told the Leader.

"The potential is there, for sure, for an absolute disaster.

"It could be you, me, my family, anybody's family casually going to work at any given time that could end up being the victim of a collision that could have dire consequences."

Last week, a 14-year-old boy was refused bail in a children's court, accused of stealing a luxury car from a Tamworth business before it was involved in a fuel theft incident and a chase through town.

"We need a fully resourced and staffed proactive team who can use investigative means to detect, disrupt and arrest," Mr Pegus said.

The Tamworth union is crying out for at least eight new permanent officers to bolster the thin blue line in the Oxley Police District.

The top priority is to boost boots in the proactive crime team (PCT) - the specialist, covert squad which can dedicate hours on end to targeting suspected offenders, patrolling hotspots and acting on intelligence.

The local PCT team has not been expanded in decades, leaving half-a-dozen officers to cover an area from Walcha to Wee Waa.

The PANSW claim Oxley is significantly understaffed compared to nearby districts.

Additional resources have been thrown at combating property crime in the region, but trends over the past two years prove a "band-aid solution" and "robbing Peter to pay Paul" won't cut it.

Fresh data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows car theft in Tamworth has increased by 46.5 per cent in the two years to December 2021.

In the 12 months to December last year, break and enters went up by 4.3 per cent.

Mr Pegus said while those numbers are disappointing, they are not surprising.

"If we don't have the resources to curb these figures and keep them in check, then we are going to be in trouble ... they can be undone, we can wind them back, and that's our goal," he said.

He said the next set of figures would probably be worse, considering there were more than 100 break-ins and 60 car thefts reported in Tamworth in February alone.

The campaign for more cops to cover Oxley has been making noise for some time, and the Tamworth PANSW welcomed the appointment of a new commander for regional NSW field operations, Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell.

"Hopefully it gives us a firm timeline," Mr Pegus said.

The Tamworth PANSW branch has had positive interactions with the western region commander, Assistant Commissioner Brett Greentree, about Tamworth's needs, most recently at a forum last month.

The state government announced a whopping allocation of 1500 extra police across the state in 2018, the last 550 of which are expected to be deployed to new posts this year and next.

A spokesperson for NSW Police Minister Paul Toole told the Leader previously that NSW Police will determine allocations based on resource requirements, and announce them later this year.

NSW Police previously said resources are flexible, based on crime trends, and the force will continue with community engagement programs to reduce offending.

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