An officer within the Orana Local Area Command for almost three years, Inspector Skelly has more than 20 years of policing experience, having previously worked in Newcastle, Sydney and the Central Coast. He is now taking on a more logistical, strategic role in the new Orana Mid-Western Police District.

“One of my strategies will be zero tolerance to bad behaviour in public … if you seek to misbehave there’s no second chances,” Inspector Skelly said.

”We’re going to take a zero tolerance approach to people that want to act badly in public and cause distress to ordinary members of the community who just want to go about their business.”

Local police would continue to crack down on rural crimes including trespass, theft and illegal hunting, Inspector Skelly said, and would also continue to respond strongly to domestic violence.

“As far as domestic violence is concerned we’ve got a lot of things in our toolbox,” he said.

“We’re about victim protection, and arresting offenders who hurt their partners and we’ll be focusing on that in Narromine as well as elsewhere.”

Inspector Skelly said he was looking forward to working with the community to drive down crime in Narromine and Trangie.

“I intend to liaise with the community and also with the council and other stakeholders, schools, I’ll be meeting the licensees and the managing directors of clubs out there, shop owners and I’ll provide them with someone else to go to if they feel like they’re not getting where they want to in dealing with other police,” he said.

“The sergeant out at Narromine will still be responsible for the day-to-day running of the station.

“I would like to achieve an even greater reduction in crime rates by … partnering with different areas of the community, coming together to develop some strategies to drive down crime in the Narromine area.”