THE suspected killer Malcolm Naden is costing the police budget hundreds of thousands of dollars a day as he refuses to give himself up to face questioning over the murders of two women, the sexual assault of a young girl and the shooting of a police officer.
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With a scaled-back Strike Force Durkin to continue working from new headquarters at Gloucester in the upper Hunter until at least March, the cost of the six-year hunt for the country's most wanted man could easily surpass $10 million.
Sources revealed estimates of the operation could have topped $330,000 a day at its peak in the days after an officer was shot by Mr Naden on December 7 but the northern region commander, Carlene York, said the size of the operation showed their intent to capture their man.
''Policing is a reactive job and we are prepared to spend sufficient resources to try and bring it to an end with the capture of Naden,'' Assistant Commissioner York said.
She said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the operation because bills for overtime, food, equipment, helicopter maintenance and incidentals had not been tallied. She said it was the largest police operation of its type she could recall.
At its height, there were 90 highly specialised officers based at Nowendoc at any one time.
It included Sydney Tactical Operation Unit officers, dressed in camouflage gear and armed with high-powered rifles, and State Protection Support unit officers from the northern and southern police regions.
Analysts and intelligence experts working on pre-empting Mr Naden's movements were also involved. And although Mr Naden had never shown any inclination to speak to police - including when he bolted from a remote Niangala homestead just before Christmas - police protocol meant numerous specialist negotiators had to be at hand ready to go.
''We contain and negotiate first and give the person every attempt to give themselves up,'' Assistant Commissioner York said.
The strike force needed to be fed and housed, helicopters needed fuel and regular maintenance and other more sensitive parts of the operation were also extremely expensive to run.
There have been numerous searches across bushland from the Barrington Tops to west of Kempsey in the six years since Mr Naden slipped a police net outside Dubbo's Western Plains Zoo.
His fingerprints or DNA have now been confirmed at more than a dozen break-ins, although he is suspected of scores of other similar burglaries.
