The Yenda community assembled on Thursday to continue their five-year-long demand for a sustained police presence.
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The ‘re-engineering’ process currently being undertaken by NSW Police promises more police on the ground for rural communities, and Yenda wants them.
After the official closing of Yenda’s Police station in 2002, a police family were living in the station until the floods of 2012, and since then the building has sat vacant and "neglected.”
Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said he will continue to consult with the community as he progresses in the re-engineering process.
“A decision was made some time ago to police Yenda from Griffith,” Deputy Commissioner Warboys said.
“The community at Yenda works closely with Griffith police and I would like to see this continue with more targeted local people policing.”
In a gathering on Thursday, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate for Murray Helen Dalton and Member for Orange Philip Donato joined with Yenda Progress Association and members of the community to demand this police presence.
“Having an officer in the community that people can know and trust and communicate with is one of the key criteria in addressing crime,” Mr Donato said, speaking from his 20 years experience in the police force.
The community at Yenda works closely with Griffith police and I would like to see this continue with more targeted local people policing.
- Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys
Ms Dalton said she is calling on the Nationals and the coalition to demand safety for rural towns like Yenda.
“We are demanding that it happens now,” Ms Dalton said.
President of the Yenda Progress Association Kay Pellizzer says she is now hopeful, under the re-engineering, their pleas will no longer fall on deaf ears.
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“We are definitely hoping that something will happen now,” Ms Pellizzer said.
“To have a police person living there and driving home and putting the police car in the carport, is a deterrent for the antisocial behaviour Yenda has been seeing.”
Secretary of the Yenda Progress association Paul Rossetto says even though there is a Yenda patrol car based in Griffith, the community lacks police presence when it is most needed – at night.
“We barely see an administration car out here, all we see is the highway patrol, but they are never here at night, and this is when we see all of the antisocial behaviour,” Mr Rossetto said.
