Children placed at risk over shortfall Detective Superintendent Maria Rustja says her squad is understaffed / Pic: Angelo Soulas Source: The Daily Telegraph CHILD abusers are walking free because the NSW police squad targeting such crimes doesn't have enough officers to arrest them. In a leaked internal police review, the Child Abuse Squad cites a lack of resources in January for stopping it from executing 50 arrests on suspects. The review also found staffing shortfalls were leading to a risk of further offences and failed prosecutions against sex offenders. The squad, headed by Superintendent Maria Rustja, wants its numbers doubled and admits its response to child abuse crime in NSW is "inadequate." The squad formally submitted to NSW Police Force in July 2012 that its numbers should be raised from 141 to 316 positions, the review reveals. The news comes just two days after abduction attempts on two children in Sydney's southwest. The review found that 50 people were due to be arrested but police could not arrest them at the time the review reported in January because of a lack of resources. The review, chaired by Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins and which featured Supt Rustja, asked whether there were enough staff in the squad and found "the answer to this question is no." "At the time of writing the Child Abuse Squad has approximately 50 briefs prepared to the stage of arrest where the suspect has not yet been arrested due to staff resources being allocated to new investigations," the Human Resources Review of the Child Abuse Squad stated. It said many officers were leaving the squad due to psychological injury because of the workload and the risks of not staffing properly included "not guilty verdicts as a result of deficiencies in police investigation or briefs of evidence, which may result in further offending." It identified another risk that victims could be dissuaded from pursuing the matters through the courts as a result of the workload pressure on the squad. There was also the risk of "abuse of children as a result of delayed responses to reported matters, and subsequent delays in removing children from harm." "In July 2012, the Child Abuse Squad formally raised concerns that its level of response to child abuse crime in NSW was inadequate due to a systemic shortfall in staffing levels over many years," the review says. The senior management of CAS recognise that there are shortfalls in the quality and completeness of work that are the direct result of insufficient staff resources able to be allocated. The Opposition Leader John Robertson said leaving police understaffed to the extent they were "unable to arrest known child abusers" was "frankly criminal." A spokesman for Police Minister Mike Gallacher said 10 officers had been allocated to the squad since January and all 50 offenders were "arrested in the subsequent weeks" after the report. "There has been a substantial increase in the reporting of crimes against children in the past three to five years which has considerably increased the workload," he said. eanwhile, police said they were investigating reports an older man and two teens in a silver sedan approached a nine-year-old boy in a Merrylands West street on Sunday. The driver is described as Caucasian, 50-60 years old, with shaven grey hair.The driver is described as being of Caucasian appearance, 50-60 years old, with shaven grey hair, one passnger is described as being of Pacific Islander appearance and aged 15-18 years old while the back seat passenger is described as possibly Caucasian and in his teens.