Kimberley police officers among the most overworked in WA, with almost half working more than 45 hours a week

Kimberley police officers are among the most overworked in WA, with almost half the force clocking in for more than 45 hours a week, new ABS data has revealed. Released by the Australia Bureau of Statistics, the data paints a bleak picture of the state of policing in regional WA, where 43.6 per cent of officers work in excess of 45 hours, compared to 23 per cent in metropolitan Perth. Some 3.9 per cent of Kimberley officers said they worked more than 70 hours a week, more than four times the 0.9 per cent figure in the metro area. Gascoyne, Goldfields and Mid-West officers also had more than 40 per cent of officers working in excess of 45 hours a week — with the Goldfields the highest at 46 per cent. The statistics include officers working in remote Indigenous communities who often perform duties outside of official working hours. The data also revealed 7.2 per cent of WA Police officers suffered from mental illness, with WA Police Union president Mick Kelly saying the figures had confirmed what was “already known”. “The lack of certainty around pay and conditions is also likely to cause further stress for police officers as we head into the Christmas period,” he said. Police officers are currently undertaking week two of their “Month of Action” which consists of working to award conditions and completing all administrative duties associated with one job, before embarking on a second. “I recognise that working to award may result in delayed response times for non-urgent jobs, but it’s important to make a stand against ‘job stacking’,” he said. “For far too long, the Government has asked the police to play a game of whack-a-mole and undertake new jobs before finishing reports for existing ones. “This isn’t just bad for police who must complete reports back at the station and in their own time, but it’s also bad for the community because it asks police to recollect the details of events that may have happened hours ago,” Mr Kelly said.