An announcement police recruits will now be able train in Launceston is expected to have an instant impact on the success of policing in the state.
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Retired Police Association president David Plumpton joined Tasmania Police decades ago from Ulverstone and had to complete his training in Hobart.
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Mr Plumpton said he would travel to the Rokeby academy every Sunday before heading back on Friday evening.
"For those who have to leave their family, this is a long time coming," he said.
"It will make a massive difference in that respect."
When announced, Assistant Commissioner Adrian Bodnar detailed the hope the facility would attract more applicants for the North and the North-West coast who would find more appeal by not having to relocate. He also said the applicants would then be posted to the place they live in the hope they would stay there.
Mr Plumpton said he had no doubts that would be the case.
He explained that when he was going through the academy, officers from the North and North-West would often warm to the idea of the South and end up wanting to stay there, which left a hole in the regions they had come from. Conversely, he said, fresh Constables from the South would be posted North and would leave as soon as they could.
"They'd be transferred to Burnie, for example, and they'd never have seen the place. They had no commitments or anything like that, and the first opportunity they got, they would leave," he said.
Mr Plumpton said the value of retaining officers to the area they grew up was priceless because they could transfer their understanding of the community into their role.
Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley the announcement was a "fantastic development".
"A large percentage of recruitment comes from South due to the population. Those recruits are then posted North and West and after a number of years they want to move back," he said.
"Hopefully this recruitment process will resolve that problem."
Mr Riley said the growth of the police force in Tasmania, which now had almost 1400 employees, called for an increase in the capacity for training and recruitment.
He said it was positive to see the Police, Fire and Emergency Services Department was seeing mutual benefits from the advocacy of the Police Association.
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