Lying SAPOL Claims It Lacks Resources to Fight Violent Crime, Yet Report Finds it Has Highest Number of Cops in Australia

SAPOL is at it again, disingenuously complaining that it lacks “resources” to execute arrest warrants on violent offenders.

According the 2022-23 Report on Government Services, South Australia has the highest per capita number of police officers compared to every other state, with 238 operational sworn staff per 100,000 people.

The national average is 221 for every 100,000 people.

Additionally, the report found the public’s satisfaction with SAPOL’s services is the highest across the country, with 78.8 per cent of South Australia’s population reporting a positive experience compared with 73.9 per cent nationally.

Which is a sad reminder of just how ignorant Australians are when it comes to recognizing and acknowledging corruption. That over three-quarters of South Australians are satisfied with a force replete with sex predators, pedophiles and their protectors, gratuitous thugs, reckless hoon-drivers, drug traffickers and racists is a rather dire indictment of the intelligence level prevailing in the state.

Despite having more cops per capita than any other state, SAPOL continues to disingenuously whine that it lacks resources to chase violent criminals.

Which is interesting, because it has plenty of resources to harass and stalk people who expose its corrupt, revenue-raising behaviour. It has plenty of resources to relentlessly pursue people who contest traffic fines. As one lawyer noted, SAPOL treats traffic fine court cases like murder cases, because its main priority is not to fight crime but to act as policy enforcer and revenue-generator for the government. In return, its officers are allowed to engage in all manner of corruption and engage in gratuitous violence in order to make themselves feel better about being otherwise uninspiring low-achievers in life.

When SAPOL saw an opportunity to harass alleged former MC member and social media ‘influencer’ Mehmet Erhan, they pulled out all stops. After SA Health failed to schedule his COVID test within the required 24-hours of his return from interstate, the sociopaths at SAPOL stormed his family home at 1am in the morning. Police goons armed with automatic weapons, gas masks, bulletproof vests and a battering ram swarmed on his property in Brahma Lodge.

Officers completely surrounded the property, invading neighbouring backyards to do so.

Onlookers awoken by the commotion and even a police helicopter hovering above thought there was a hostage siege taking place at the house.

There was no siege. The justification for this monumental display of stupidity and waste was that, through no fault of his own, Erhan had not taken the notoriously inaccurate PCR test quickly enough.

On September 25, 2022, an Adelaide man tooted his horn at Sergeant Timothy John Schroeder, who was unnecessarily causing a major traffic obstruction on one of South Australia’s most accident-prone sections of roads.

The horn toot lasted 1.5 seconds and caused harm to no-one or nothing except Schroeder’s terribly fragile ego. The potty-mouthed, sociopathic cop promptly flew into a rage, exclaimed “FUCKING WANKER!”, jumped into his vehicle, impatiently waited for traffic to clear, then tore down North East Road at 30 km’h over the limit in pursuit of the man.

Because Schroeder is a professional coward, he called for back up to deal with this non-violent and inconsequential ‘crime’. The ‘under-resourced’ SAPOL happily obliged, sending another four police vehicles, containing another six overpaid goons, who illegally trespassed on the man’s property and assaulted him.

In response to a legal challenge to his unlawful COVID mandates, in early 2022 SAPOL commissioner Grant Stevens did all he could to weasel his way out of appearing in court, where he risked being unmercifully grilled by the plaintiff’s lawyers. After first claiming he had other engagements, then claiming he had an unnamed ‘virus’, he was subpoenaed to appear in court. Terrified that a handful of peaceful protesters might wave signs at him and yell “shame!”, as they did with Nicola Spurrier a week earlier, the cowardly Stevens commissioned a large contingent of police officers to hold his hand as he entered and left the court.

The picture below shows over a dozen of these officers standing idly outside the court while Stevens played dumb inside.

In the end, there were more cops outside the court than protesters, rendering the entire exercise yet another unnecessary waste of taxpayer-funded resources.

Contrast this with the plight of domestic violence and sexual assault victims, who are expected to front court and face their attackers with only sympathetic friends and family for protection.

The reality is that, with the most cops per capita of any Australian state, SAPOL has plenty of resources. The problem is that it diverts those resources to crushing dissent, stalking and harassing critics, evading transparency, covering up its corruption, and protecting the industrial-scale traffic fine revenue racket that it conducts on behalf of the government.

This leaves little time and manpower for the unprofitable endeavour of fighting real crime.

True to form, the liars at SAPOL claim that a “lack of resources” is impeding their ability to execute arrest warrants.

It’s not a lack of resources, it’s a lack of morality and decency and the highly twisted set of priorities that prevail at SAPOL.

In January, grandfather Mark Smedley was attacked at Christies Beach after being approached by a group of people at an intersection in broad daylight. Mr Smedley, who was knocked unconscious and suffered a fractured skull in the assault, was allegedly hit over the head with a scooter after confronting a member of the group who had smashed his car window.

“My life flashed before my eyes,” Mr Smedley, 63, told The Advertiser.

“I thought I was going to die.”

“It was just crazy.”

“The doctor said you’ve dodged a bullet.”

Mr Smedley’s alleged attacker was Andrew Kevin Gollan, 24, who had been wanted on an outstanding warrant since March last year related to an alleged armed robbery at a Paralowie service station.

The court also heard Gollan had 121 prior criminal convictions at the time of the alleged assault.

That’s not a typo.

A warrant for Gollan’s arrest was issued after he failed to appear in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on March 30 last year charged with committing theft using force after allegedly threatening a service station employee with a gun.

But SAPOL officers have better things to do than arrest dangerous armed criminals, like instead chasing and assaulting unarmed citizens who briefly toot their horns at insecure idiots like Sergeant Timothy John Schroeder.

Police sources told The Advertiser a lack of resources meant executing arrest warrants was not prioritised over day-to-day call outs.

“The key issue is the lack of people doing the job,” one officer said.

“You need the resources to start looking for these people.”

“When you don’t have boots on the ground you can’t do it.”

One officer said police were “too busy doing response work” (i.e. chasing and assaulting people who harmlessly toot their car horns at hoon-driving officers) to follow up on warrants, even for serious offenders.

Another officer said locating and arresting Gollan “should have been a priority”.

“I would have thought that on a charge of a robbery with a weapon it would be a priority.”

An SA Police spokeswoman said police “ensure all reasonable inquiries are conducted and take all reasonable steps to locate the warrant subject to ensure the execution of a warrant”.

Which, of course, is a lie.

“When a warrant is received from the court, the subject will be flagged on police systems as being wanted for the warrant and inquiries will be conducted at the subject’s last known address and any other address that police intelligence may identify,” she said.

Gollan was charged with property damage, aggravated assault causing harm, disorderly behaviour and other offences related to the outstanding warrant.

He was also charged with two counts of assaulting an emergency worker after allegedly assaulting two police officers trying to arrest him.

The Christies Beach Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard one of the officers had suffered a broken nose and a fractured left knee in the incident at a beach near where Mr Smedley was attacked.

Mr Smedley said he had been stopped at the intersection “minding my own business” when he noticed a group of people approaching his car before he was attacked “within in a second”.

He said he remembered being struck twice with the scooter before he was knocked unconscious.

“What a nightmare,” Mr Smedley said.

Mr Smedley said he had been left so traumatised from the attack he was unsure when he would return to work as a bus driver.

“I thought I was gone,” he said.

“I thought I was going to die … once that scooter came through the window.”

Gollan was remanded in custody to face the Adelaide Magistrates Court later this year.

A 22-year-old Morphettville woman, who police allege is Gollan’s girlfriend, was arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour and hindering police.

She was bailed to appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court in February.

Mr Smedley said he considered himself lucky to walk away from the assault.

“It’s just sheer luck that you’re just reporting on a guy who just got worked over.”

“As a society, we can’t afford to have these types of people roaming through the community.”

Sources

Police say lack of resources leaves violent offenders on the streets as scooter assault victim calls for ‘broken’ system to be fixed. The Advertiser.

Veteran cop Gary Wills awarded SAPOL honour as local cops top the nation in new report. The Advertiser.