There have been 11 gangland killings in the past two years in southwest Sydney and police admit the situation is "unacceptable".
The number of murders was revealed by NSW Police Investigations and Counter Terrorism Deputy Commissioner David Hudson at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.
"I share concern in relation to the activity that's going on - all police officers do," he said.
"It's unacceptable and we understand that."
Mr Hudson's comments came a week after Mahmoud 'Brownie' Ahmad became the latest underworld figure to die in a hail of bullets on a Sydney street.
It was well known two families were connected to gang-related crime in the area, but it was not as simple as just arresting those people, Mr Hudson said.
"There are over 300 individuals involved.
"Many of the particularly violent actions of these groups is outsourced to other people."
Asked if there was a "war" or "conflict" between the families, Mr Hudson said they were in an "escalated dispute".
Investigations into the 11 killings, dating back to 2020, are at various stages and charges could be laid in a number of the cases.
Five of the murders had been referred to the homicide squad, and six are with the the criminal squad under the State Crime Command.
Mr Hudson, a deputy Commissioner, said a resolution could only be reached if the cause of the conflict - drugs - was removed.
It was earlier revealed NSW has the fewest police per capita of any state, with 244 officers per 100,000 residents.
Victoria has 312 operational staff per 100,000 residents, Queensland 285, Western Australia 291, South Australia 210 and Tasmania 275.
Deputy Premier and Police Minister Paul Toole, who took over the portfolio four months ago, was asked about claims by Premier Dominic Perrottet that NSW had more police than any other jurisdiction.
"That's not true," Labor police spokesman Walt Secord said.
"This is your own data, provided by your police service to the federal government."
Mr Toole said the government had made the largest commitment to additional police officers in 30 years with its 2019 pledge for 1500 new recruits over four years.
Six hundred non-probationary constables would be allocated to commands in coming months, he noted.
Meanwhile, police data for 2020/21 showed people in western Sydney requesting urgent police help faced some of the state's longest wait times.
At least one-in-five urgent calls went unattended across three quarters of police regions, Mr Secord said.
The top-20 areas with the highest percentage of urgent calls not attended are all in the Sydney region, the majority in the city's west.
NSW Police set their own benchmark of responding to urgent calls within 12 minutes.
Of the state's 57 policing regions, 43 failed to respond to a fifth of calls within the timeframe.
Parramatta topped the state for slow response times with a 30 per cent failure to respond within 12 minutes, followed by Campsie and Liverpool City with 27 per cent.
Police received 158,773 urgent calls, with 75.7 per cent of those attended within 12 minutes.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Parramatta may have been affected by light-rail construction and COVID-19 lockdowns.
"You may also recall that police played a critical role during COVID in enforcing public health orders in highly populated areas in western Sydney," she said.
"The health orders that were in place for 12 LGAs were all in western Sydney."
