He’s a good man, with a good understanding of country policing, and was a former Southern Region Commander, so he understands out area.

He said in his first media conference that the NSW Police will have a key focus on ‘community first’ from Monday morning, which is fantastic.

His appointment will be good for our community into the future, and I look forward to seeing him in the role.

Operation Chrome has been underway over the last two weekends throughout the Hume, and in Cootamundra and Monaro as well.

Operation Chrome targets regional roads, aiming to get the message out that speeding, drink driving and using your phone isn’t something you can do on a back road.

Thirteen people were arrested over the two weekends for drink driving, and 50 traffic infringements were issued in school zones, mostly for drivers using their phones.

There were several positive drug tests returned.

This is quite a high result for quieter country areas.

Some of the feedback the police officers received was pretty unbelievable.

They were asked, “What are you doing in these areas?,” and “You shouldn’t be out here.”

The truth is, we will be out there targeting regional areas. In fact, we’ll be out there this weekend.

We want to make our region safer, particularly in light of the fact that here have been two fatal accidents in the Hume in the last few days.

A 56 year-old male motorcycle rider died near Crookwell, and it looks like speed and inexperience were factors in the accident. In Yass, a 46 year-old man drove into a truck on Lachlan Valley Way.

So it really must be a continued focus in the whole Southern Region, because too many people are dying on our roads. We will do all that we can to stop it.