Police and the community came together on Wednesday, 12 November, in Mooroolbark to discuss all things crime and prevention in the Yarra Ranges.
Hosting the Neighbourhood Policing Forum, the Eastern Division’s highest-ranking officers provided an update and overview of the key challenges facing the police service area.
Eastern Division Two Superintendent Steve White oversees three local government areas, including Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges.
Based at Knox, he manages a roster of 660 police officers.
Staffing was one of the first challenges he mentioned, highlighting the “resource-strapped” workforce within Victoria Police.
“I’ll mention it just the once during this forum, VicPol has got 16 or 17,000 sworn police members, and we’re supported by two or 3000 VPS public servants who do awesome work,” he said.
“Right now, in Victoria Police, we’ve probably got eight or 900 people off work, and mostly that’s for mental health. I’m not going to be using that as an excuse, but the reality is we are short of staff, and it impacts us in the outer east division as much as it does anywhere else.
“At any given time, we’ve got about 60 people off work, so forget about the people who go sick every now and again, or people who are on leave…We’re not running on empty, but we’re running on minimum resources.
“From my perspective, our division does an awesome job for the people who are at work to keep the community safe as best as we possibly can. It’s not perfect. We’re the first ones to admit that.”
Superintendent White said from a leadership perspective, he has so far been encouraged by the changes Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has announced in how policing is done and resourced.
The focus will shift to reducing serious crime, like aggravated burglary, while still ensuring road safety and all other aspects of policing are a priority.
In October, Chief Commissioner Bush announced major reforms to the organisational structure of Victoria Police by slimming down the executive team and trialling the release of sworn officers from police station reception counter duties.
“Right now, police spend more than 4000 hours per day – or 1.4 million hours per year – staffing reception counters in police stations. This is poor use of their invaluable skills and it’s not what they want to be doing,” he said.
“We must get more police – your police – out of their stations and onto the streets where they can respond to and deter crimes.
“What is important to me is that our members on the frontline know that help is coming – and it is coming soon.”
Earlier this month, news outlets also reported that minimum staffing standards for police stations would be scrapped, potentially closing stations to the public, to get more officers on the roads.
“The chief is talking about closing down stations. I support that, because in reality, we just don’t have the staff to be sitting at the counter waiting for someone to come in and get a document signed. That’s the reality,” Superintendent White said.
“So the more people we can have out on the road going to whether it’s Lilydale Marketplace, Chirnside Park, Main Street, Croydon, I know it’s just outside of the patch, but those sorts of areas, that’s what I want our police to do, because that’s where the perceptions of safety skyrocket.”
Among the reforms Superintendent White supports is the inclusion of two new values for Victoria Police as an organisation.
“I like the fact that he’s putting compassion in in terms of the values because, as a 38-year veteran, what really grates on me the most is not providing compassion. So treat people the way you would like to be treated. I really find that to be a key value,” he said.
“And courage, having the courage of our convictions, it doesn’t mean running into a burning house necessarily. Often, we talk about the courage to call out bad behaviour.”
Topics for the day included crime trends and crime prevention, family violence, young people, road policing and emergency management.
Star Mail will provide stories on each topic.
