Cottesloe Police Station to merge with Wembley from July 4

POLICE cite low crime in Cottesloe as a reason for merging the suburb’s police station with Wembley Police Station from July 4.

Cottesloe Police Station will move from the Mirrabooka-based North West Metropolitan district to the Perth-commanded Central Metropolitan District.

“Fortunately, Cottesloe continues to be an area of low demand in terms of crime, and it has been determined this new arrangement provides a better demand mix across the districts,” a police spokesman told the Western Suburbs Weekly.

The spokesman said this would mean fast-response officers would to now come from Perth, but Cottesloe police station would remain open to the public in business hours and there would be no reduction in service to the community.

Because of next month’s changes, the commanding senior sergeant at Cottesloe will be removed and the station’s remaining 11 officers come under the roster at Wembley station.

Cottesloe Mayor Jo Dawkins said the loss of the senior sergeant was disappointing because the council had an excellent relationship with the station’s command.

“And the presence of Cottesloe Police Station has given residents the sense of security that will difficult to replace, since its officers have always responded quickly and efficiently,” Mrs Dawkins said.

However, she agreed putting Cottesloe in the central district could result in quicker response times by the mobile patrols from Perth.

“We always found it peculiar that Cottesloe was included in the North West Metropolitan District when reform was announced, which resulted in response vehicles having to travel extraordinary distances to attend incidents,” WA Police Union president George Tilbury said

The union’s on-going issues are the Cottesloe and Wembley stations being unfit for modern police because they use old sergeant’s houses, and no funding for modern police hub promised in Claremont in 2010.

“Since then, Claremont and Subiaco police stations have closed and we are no closer to getting a fit for purpose police complex in the western suburbs,” Mr Tilbury said.