00:01It's a wave of violent crime that has communities on edge.
00:06I've seen so much everywhere and it has to stop. It's just too much now.
00:13And I live in an area that we're too scared to go out.
00:17Plenty are now welcoming new anti-gang laws which propose harsher sentences for those planning underworld hits and the young
00:24hired criminals carrying them out.
00:27People will think twice about it and it's never too late.
00:30People are relieved, I suppose, that the state government has finally taken action on this.
00:38Everybody has a right to feel safe in their own home and their own neighbourhoods.
00:41But as the state government ramps up its fight against the violence, policing jobs in suburbs at the epicentre of
00:48the gangland war are sitting empty.
00:50Quite simply, if you increase the powers and don't have the police resources, it's not going to work.
00:56In the Cumberland Police Area Command, where an innocent man was gunned down at Maryland's last week, figures obtained under
01:03freedom of information laws show a shortfall of 61 officers.
01:07In neighbouring area commands, Fairfield has 78 unfilled positions, Liverpool 74 and Bankstown is 49 officers short.
01:16In some areas they are, but we were dealing with a decades-long shortage of NSW police officers and the
01:27authorised strength number we haven't met yet, but we're on the way to doing it.
01:31There are also calls for more to be done to prevent young people from turning to a life of crime.
01:37Teaching the younger generations and stuff about the consequences and what happens.
01:41The Premier says the government's working with community groups.
01:45Particularly in Western Sydney, church leaders, school leaders, football groups to try and steer young people away to better decisions.
01:52Better decisions it hopes will lead to a safer community.
01:55To help them, please come to be in the same position and look at a better community.
01:55To help them get a little bit of a better city.
01:57The Premier said, Fiat is a completely different.
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