Nigel Hunt: Victims are at the mercy of police station overhaul plan

ANALYSIS: MAKING it harder for a victim to report a crime doesn’t make much sense.

Methode Byline Headshots of Advertiser Sunday Mail journalists. Nigel Hunt. Picture: Clayton Nick

MAKING it harder for a victim to report a crime doesn’t make much sense.

But that may be an unintended consequence of the proposal to close more police stations and reduce the opening hours of others.

As an example, a victim of a crime can now report the offence at any time at a station that is open 24 hours a day. But under the new plan, the CBD’s most prominent station, Wakefield St, would be closed to the public and its operations transferred to Grenfell St station.

However, Grenfell St station will only be open from 9am to 5pm, five days a week.

This means a member of the public would have to brave the elements of Hindley St to report a crime if they were unfortunate enough to become a victim outside these times. While that may be fine during the day, asking a traumatised victim to find a carpark and venture into Hindley St in the early hours of the morning is a bit rich — and may well influence their decision to proceed.

If the attendance figures for Wakefield St are so low so as to justify this action, then they need to be released so the public can be assured it is a just decision and not one that was made because budget imperatives necessitated it.

Police Association chief Mark Carroll has every right to be just a little peeved at the timing of the three documents.

Just a fortnight ago, he and his executive concluded negotiating the latest enterprise bargaining agreement for police officers. In more than 18 months of negotiations, there was no mention of civilianising either police stations or intelligence roles. While they may not have impacted the outcome, they would have certainly influenced the atmosphere in which negotiations were conducted.

Such detailed, meticulous and exacting plans are not hatched overnight. Indeed, even if they had only been finalised in recent months, it would have been prudent for the association to have been consulted.

Likewise, for the Government to have learned of the proposals indirectly also raises questions, because a community issue as sensitive as police station closures and their civilianisation was always going to attract serious scrutiny.