Retired police brought back to fight virus rule-breakers
A plan to bring veteran police officers out of retirement to help on the virus frontline would give them some extraordinary powers, but not everyone’s a fan of the plan.
HS Coronavirus News
Don't miss out on the headlines from HS Coronavirus News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Retired police are being recruited as authorised officers to bolster Victoria’s frontline response to coronavirus.
Charged with enforcing compliance of COVID-19 rules, the former police would have extraordinary powers to detain, move on, arrest and fine any member of the public.
A recruitment drive is being run by the Department of Justice and Community Safety and the Department of Health and Human Services.
An email circulated to members of Police Veterans Support Victoria said the departments were “looking to build a large team of authorised officers ready to respond to demand, should it develop.”
Officers would undertake paid training before being assigned to specific roles.
Under Victoria’s state of emergency and state of disaster – due to end on October 11 – authorised officers can detain anyone “for the period reasonably necessary to eliminate or reduce a serious risk to public health”.
A bill currently before parliament would allow them to detain “high-risk” coronavirus spreaders.
The measure would be implemented until April 2021.
Ivan Ray, a 32 year Victoria Police veteran, said he was concerned about risks to former police taking on the frontline role.
“Without the resources of Victoria Police intelligence, communications and the ability to assess the danger before they are committed is a recipe for disaster for the veterans,” he said.
Mr Ray, Community Advocacy Alliance secretary, said the Department of Health and Human Services had proven they were incapable of running an enforcement operation.
“It’s effectively a health department police force, and we know the Health Department is no good at enforcement, we saw that in the hotel quarantine operation,” Mr Ray said.
“Veterans can play a part and they can support policing, but it has to be by the police department,” he said.
Mr Ray said there was serious concern about the safety of veteran police who had been away from the job for some time and were generally of older age.
“It may suit retired members to work a couple of days at a station, that’s one thing,” he said.
“As to them being operational, some might want to do it, but what happens if they get into strife. Are they going to have anything to look after themselves?
Former police chief Graham Ashton vehemently advocated against a veteran police in schools program, he said.
“We were told we were out of touch. Now we’re appropriate to go back on the frontline. What a load of nonsense.”
Opposition Police & Community Safety spokesman David Southwick said the call for help signalled poor management of police resources.
“Police veterans have a real contribution to make to the ongoing safety of the community but their use to issue infringements, detain people and conduct checks on private property is entirely inappropriate,” Mr Southwick said.
“It’s quite bizarre that retired police officers would be considered out of touch to be involved in a schools program but be ready for action to serve detaining Victorians on the frontline.
“With Victoria’s COVID-19 cases falling, why is Daniel Andrews so desperate that he now needs to call on retired police to keep Victorians locked up?”
A government spokeswoman said: “Authorised officers play a vital role … we will be recruiting more to ensure we have adequate support across all the streams where they are working including, industry enforcement, testing, doorknocking and the airport.
“Former police officers are considered ideal candidates because of their enforcement history.”