SYDNEY, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The New South Wales (NSW) government in Australia announced on Tuesday they will beef up the state's annual police budget by shelling out a record 3.9 billion Australian dollars (2.94 billion U.S. dollars) this year.
With a 14 percent increase in the state's population over the past decade, more than 1,000 extra officers have been added to the police force since 2011 and this year 100 more are set to be deployed as part of the budget increase.
In addition of the upturn in personnel, six more police stations will also be built across the state.
"The NSW Police Force plays an integral role in keeping communities safe and this record investment will enable its officers to put even more criminals behind bars," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
"We are proud to make this record investment but our work doesn't stop here -- we will continue to support our police with funding and the tools they need so they can keep our communities safe."
Following on from last year's move to bolster counter-terrorism capabilities with new high powered, semi-automatic military assault rifles, the state has looked to implement a number of radical changes which minister for police Troy Grant described as the "NSW Police Force's biggest organisational transformation in 20 years."
Some of the programs include plans to enhance post-sentence detention and supervision for high-risk offenders and further investment in advanced facial recognition technology under the new National Facial Biometric Matching Capability Service.
The police force have also doubled the state's mobile drug testing program to combat dangerous driving on NSW roads.
Despite the high costs, however, the most recent crime statistics indicate the measures are paying off with 16 of the 17 major crime categories shown to be stable or falling in the past two years to December 2017.
