NSW Police numbers are in danger of going backwards, with a record amount of officers retiring, and the waiting list for new recruits badly wanting, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Police are gaining the upper hand in Sydney’s gang war for the first time, charging a man over the murder of Bilal Hamze on the same day they carried out a crime scene warrant where his cousin Ghassan Amoun was killed.

Labor has promised to give nurses more time to care for ­individual patients by introducing “safe staffing levels” if it wins the next election, in a commitment that stops short of meeting union demands for legislated nurse-to-patient ratios.

And in sport, “to beat Penrith, you have to bash them.”

That’s the old-school advice from former Rabbitohs enforcer Mark ‘Spudd’ Carroll as South Sydney prepare for mission impossible: stopping Nathan Cleary and raging premiership favourites Penrith.

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