The New South Wales Police Association conference has heard many officers can no longer afford to live in the communities they serve due to the state's housing crisis.
At the biennial event in Wollongong on Tuesday, the association's newly elected president called for models of affordable housing to be created for members of the force.
Kevin Morton said providing cheaper housing options for police was "imperative" to retain officers and improve response times.
"When transferred to Northern Beaches, I was able to buy a house and raise a family," he told the conference.
"Today, this is out of reach for some of our younger police officers who can no longer, at least in Sydney, afford to live and work in the community.
Recruit shortage
Mr Morton says police are not immune to the cost-of-living pressures being experienced across the country and that financial constraints have contributed to a shortage of recruits.
He said the issue was exacerbated by an expensive qualification process, where trainees are charged almost $20,000 to complete courses in order to obtain a job on the force.
"It's time to get back to police teaching police and we need to recruit people with experience," Mr Morton said.
"The only way to do this is pay them as they learn.
Bringing costs down
The state’s Police Minister, Paul Toole, Police Commissioner Karen Webb and NSW Labor leader Chris Minns attended the conference.
Commissioner Webb acknowledged the housing crisis and said she would like to see officers living in or near the communities they worked.
She said she would also be open to discussing the association's concerns around the training model and its costs.
"Most of them have access to and can access scholarship schemes.
"But certainly, if there's an opportunity to discuss something different, I'm open to that as well," she said.
Mr Toole agreed with Commissioner Webb's assessment.
"Recruitment now is a big issue right across the country," he said.
Mr Minns said it was "unconscionable" to ask young officers to work in a city where they could not afford to raise a family.
He also criticised the state government's failure to recruit the additional 1,500 officers it promised at the 2019 election.
"We're 650 officers short of that target," Mr Minns said.
"We all need to crack on now and make sure the officers are on post, through the academy, and in position to take on the significant challenges the police force has to deal with every day of the year," he said.
