With issues around crime and in the building of better relations between the local Barwon communities of the bush and their local law enforcement officers.
As a former Moree boy who left for the big smoke of Sydney in 1973 I felt the Champion article was a personal kick in the guts to the integrity of Ma'am Hayes as a senior serving NSW police officer.
This article did nothing to reassure the people living in the Barwon areas their police force was there working for them.
Ma'am Hayes has had vast experiences in Sydney in various commands before taking up her post at Barwon.
I remember her no nonsense approach to crime as the Crime Manager of the Kings Cross Local Area Command (LAC) many moons ago.
I think the real issue for some relating to this article is Ma'am Hayes' no nonsense approach to saying it as it needs to be said.
Some people just don't like to be reminded of the truth or their hypocrisy or their duplicity.
Some people just like to "blame and claim" their lives away.
But I believe the meat and three vegetable Catholic approach is the way to go.
You can't go through your life sugar coating things for fear of upsetting someone.
The real issue facing the folk in the bush is their feral children running amok after dark while the parents of these children are in blanket bay asleep.
It's not up to the Barwon Police Force to round up children as young as 10 and lock them up.
The locking up of 10-year-olds by police will do nothing to combat this anti-social behaviour.
Barwon Police are not the area’s local baby sitters.
Parent's need to take more responsibility for their children by ensuring that they are in their beds at night asleep and not roaming the streets causing trouble and frightening pensioners.
Barwon police are not the legal guardians for feral children.
School principals in areas where their schools are being vandalised after dark also need to take some responsibility for these problems by employing their own security officers to patrol these areas at night.
Our policing resources can't be everywhere at any one time.
Jobs over the radio need to be prioritised according to their urgency.
It's easy for us to blame the men and women of the NSW Police Force for everything from us having a head cold to it's their fault our children are roaming the streets running amok because police provide us with an easy kicking board but it's more important for us as a community to build workable relationships with our police force because we benefit from this approach in
the end.
When someone breaks into our house and threatens our safety who are we going to call? Tinkerbell or the police?
No disrespect to Tinkerbell but I doubt Tinkerbell could butch up in time.
The NSW Police Force are the ones who represent the NSW Crimes Act.
We rely on them.
I call on the local constituency of Barwon to give their cops a fair go.
Superintendent Jenny Hayes is a very experienced operational police officer and a good woman.
She has my upmost respect.
Let's all work together with our police force so we can achieve real outcomes so that our children and our elderly can be safe from harm’s way.
Let's all have a bit of a yarn about our concerns and issues with police instead of attacking these very people we need and want to make our local area a safe place.
We should never hurt or harm a mocking bird because all a mocking bird does is sing its heart out.
This imagery is the way we should be dealing with our police officers because all they do is work their guts out for us.
These officers are our friends and not our enemies.
Gary Burns.
Woollahra, Sydney
More next week...