Every police officer should be trained to take down "active shooter" terrorists and all police cars need to be equipped with long-arm firearms, the state police union has demanded in a suite of tough election requests.
The Police Association of NSW's pre-election submission has exposed weaknesses in the force's ability to deal with "lone wolf" terror attacks, including shortfalls in staff, poor training and inadequate tactics.
Both major political parties have been asked to move towards an aggressive US-style model of policing that allows first responders – usually general-duties frontline police – to take down terrorists on the street immediately rather than waste crucial minutes waiting for specialist units to arrive.
"The traditional methods of containment and negotiation, or 'buying time' until specialist teams can arrive, is not effective," the union's submission says.
Most active-shooter incidents end in less than five minutes, American research has found.
The submission references the Lindt Cafe siege in December, which lasted 17 hours and raised questions about whether police were right to sit back until gunman Man Haron Monis opened fire, killing cafe manager Tori Johnson.
The Police Association has demanded the winner of the March 28 state election put long-arm firearms in every police car, end the dangerous practice of single-unit policing, build a new training facility and shooting range in Sydney for active-shooter training and allocate $2 million for 3D laser scanners that allow investigators to "virtually" revisit the scene of major terrorism events.
"After what happened in Copenhagen on Sunday, not only should all these requests be fulfilled, they should have been fulfilled yesterday," said the union's president, Scott Weber.
"This is not a grab for extra money or power. The world has changed and not for the better. These are common-sense strategies that the troops are requesting from their leaders."
Long-arm firearms would allow police to kill active shooters from further away than their Glock handguns.
Standard operating procedures in NSW have not kept pace with guidelines from the Australia-New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee, which acknowledges the ever-growing risk of active-shooter attacks and argues that traditional policing tactics are no longer appropriate.
The union has also revealed most police stations desperately need safety upgrades and staff are being directed away from core law enforcement duties to the growing terror threat.
The state government will be asked to spend $50 million over two years for upgrades including safety screens at front counters, duress alarms and CCTV to show persons approaching stations.
The short-term impact of counter-terrorism operations has been "enormous" and investigations will soon become unsustainable if more officers aren't recruited, the submission warns.
New South Wales has the country's second lowest police-to-population ratio and it is gradually worsening. Shortages are most acute in Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Shoalhaven, the Police Transport Command and the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command.
Staff shortfalls are also jeopardising the management of the Child Protection Register and police are struggling to keep up with an increasing number of child abuse victims coming forward.
In its lengthy pre-election submission, to be released on Monday, the union has demanded at least 246 new officers, of whom 50 should go to the Child Abuse Squad.
Police Minister Stuart Ayres would not make a commitment to meet any of the union's demands.
"I speak regularly with the leadership of the Police Association," he said. "We will release our election policies during the course of the campaign,"
Shadow Police Minister Steve Whan said the Labor party has made a commitment to immediately roll out active-shooter training, fund negotiator vans and fulfil the union's request to upgrade the radio spectrum.
Other elements, including future staffing, would be considered after seeing costings, he said.
"We certainly share their concerns that the number of police per 100,000 population is declining," he said.
