He met with the local police management team, administrative personnel and union representatives to establish what has worked well under the restructure, what is needed and what needs improvement or other action.

“I am talking with detectives, highway patrol officers, counter staff and asking them for their input to take the region forward,” Deputy Commissioner Worboys said. “I made a commitment to come back and have these discussions to see where we were up to to get the re-engineering of these police districts right.

“What has changed is the notion around prevention and disruption of crime. We are very keen now to see resources put into the prevention of crime, like the Commissioners Rise Up Program –  where young people are brought into the program and at the end are offered jobs – is a strategy that will work and can be expanded into the districts across NSW.”

Instead of local police acting on major issues in isolation, they were undertaking more team-based operations where the teams fanned out from the region, he said. Officers from these teams were located in various districts but joined up to target crime. 

Deputy Commissioner Worboys said the review had pointed out areas where improvements and modifications were needed.