Policing cost study to support budgeting

POLICE Commissioner David Manning has welcomed the findings and recommendations of an independent “true cost of policing” study by Deloittes (PNG).
It was commissioned last October through the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership.
He plans to use the findings and recommendations in his submission to the central funding agencies preparing the 2021 national budget.
He said his predecessors had always complained about the lack of funding and resources but this was not supported by any independent evidence source.
The study found that based on a review of the international literature, “poor law and order environments correlate with worse socioeconomic outcomes”.
The study outlined the costs of maintaining the constabulary at its current staffing level, while gradually backfilling other resource gaps over a 10-year period to 2029.
“It alternatively illustrates a cost scenario in which the RPNGC would achieve the objective of successive governments of 10,000 well-trained uniform staff,” Manning said.
“Contrasting these scenarios sheds considerable light on the price tag of the Government’s commitment to the stable law and order objective.”
He accepted that the magnitude of the funding gaps found in the study was consistent with that of the Government’s cornerstone policy.
He welcomed the need to update and correct an aging and insufficient stock of police stations and police housing.
Manning noted that the findings aligned well with what the constabulary had been trying for many years.
“With independent evidence at hand to support that investment in good policing can be partially self-funding, I will attempt to obtain a 2021 funding envelope better aligned with the Government’s objective for law and order,” he said.