With the new structure comes the introduction of a regional enforcement squad, a move welcomed by the district’s highest ranking officer, Superintendent Paul McDonald.

The squad will be a proactive unit targeting the mid-level supply of drugs and property crime and other key crime areas.

The changes are part of a statewide command restructure announced by Police Commissioner Mick Fuller last year.

As part of the re-engineering, the state’s 34 local area commands in regional NSW are being replaced by 26 police districts.

Under the restructure, the soon-to-be defunct Chifley Local Area Command will absorb Cowra and Canowindra.

Supt McDonald, who took over the Chifley command in January, just weeks ahead of the transition, said at the time he was looking forward to the opportunities re-engineering would offer, as well as any challenges.

He said an “enormous amount of back of house preparation” had gone into preparing for the transition, including collating intelligence from Cowra and Canowindra and looking at how the district would be resourced.

Supt McDonald said throughout the process, police would be focused on keeping crime rates falling.

“We are as ready as we can be. There have been extensive discussions between all affected parties, and I’m really expecting the transition to be seamless,” he said.

He said neighbouring commands, including Dubbo, had undergone their restructure and everything had gone very well.

New England and Oxley commands have also completed their restructure, while Canobolas, which absorbs Lachlan, will go live about the same time Chifley does.

 All districts will be finalised by the end of March.