Armadale Police Station to become 24-hour facility

ARMADALE Police Station is set to become a 24/7 public access station from Monday July 24.

It will become the second police station in the South East Metropolitan District to run a 24-hour facility, joining Cannington.

“Crime doesn’t stop at four o’clock and the people of Armadale deserve to have the same in-person access to police services as people in the city,” Police Minister Michelle Roberts said.

Ms Roberts said the $7 million promised in funding to support extend police station hours across Perth will be provided soon as part of the budget process.

“It was actually (Deputy Commissioner of Operations Stephen Brown’s) idea to be able to start the 24 hour stations sooner rather than later. He said he was very comfortable doing that from existing resources and that he had the resources to be able to do that,” she said.

Armadale MLA Tony Buti said the issue of a 24-hour police station was a key concern expressed by locals.

“(Armadale residents) have consistently turned out in huge numbers to show their support and we could not have done this without them,” Mr Buti said.

Ms Roberts said she thought the new hours would give a degree of comfort to the community, offering a place to go in case of emergency or if they feel in fear.

“One of the people who spoke at the rally said that he was riding a pushbike and was being harassed by a vehicle that was following him and so forth. And he rode his pushbike as fast as he could to Armadale Police Station thinking ‘well there will be someone here 24 hours a day’, which they weren’t. And he was quite distressed about that,” she said.

“The South East Metropolitan district is the biggest and most demanding of the areas… for it to struggle with just one 24 hour station in Cannington has not been a proper service to the community.”

The boost to Armadale Police Station’s hours is accompanied by $800,451 in funding for the Armadale Youth Intervention Project, which is aimed at reducing juvenile crime.

Workers from Save the Children Australia will continue engaging with some of the area’s most vulnerable young people to ensure they get the right support at the right time and break the cycle of re-offending.

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