SOUTH Australia police commissioner and state co-ordinator Grant Stevens says the organisation will work to deliver the same level of service to regional and remote South Australians as it does to those in the metropolitan areas over the next three years.
Mr Stevens, who has been the state’s commissioner since July 2015, was recently appointed for another three years, leaving him to continue his role until July 2023.
He said the past five years have passed in the blink of an eye.
“I’ve been a member of this organisation for 38 years and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time as police officer,” Mr Stevens said.
“We are a highly regarded police service and I know the community has a lot of confidence in us.
“Being able to lead an organisation that is respected by the community is something that I’m humbled by, but is also a real driver for me to make sure that we continue delivering that level of service to the community and that we are the police service the community needs.”
Mr Stevens said over the past five years, the challenge around changing the way the organisation delivers police services has been quite significant as well.
He said he hopes that once COVID-19 has been dealt with, SA police can focus on its service delivery in other areas, including regional policing.
“We have a project team that’s having a look at how we deliver services in regional South Australia,” Mr Stevens said.
“We do have a plan that we’ve been able to develop that accommodates the changing demographics and population growth in regional South Australia.
“We need to be prepared to be able to move forward as those changes occur, so we’ve developed a plan and we’re watching closely in terms of how we can implement that plan so the level of service provided to people who live in regional and remote South Australia equals to the service people receive in the wider metropolitan area.”
In addition, Mr Stevens said the organisation would be focusing on targeting cybercrime and terrorism, which has had an increasing impact both on regional and metropolitan SA.
“From a community point of view, I think one of the challenges from a crime perspective has been the growth in the cyber environment,” Mr Stevens said.
“People using cyber to exploit vulnerable members of the community, new crimes being committed that didn’t exist before the cyber situation, and also, traditional crimes like theft and fraud being committed differently because of technology.
“But we’ve always been keeping a very close eye on the terrorism space as well.
“I think we’re very lucky to live in South Australia in that we’re impacted to the same level as other parts of Australia and certainly overseas, but we have to be attune to the fact that there still is a risk of a terrorism event and we need to ensure we do as much as we can to prevent that, and if it does happen, respond effectively.”
Mr Stevens said he was proud of what the organisation has achieved so far, and looked forward to the next three years.