Coalition promises safer Ringwood train station with new daytime PSOs

PROTECTIVE Service Officers will patrol Ringwood train station from 10am daily if the Coalition wins November’s state election.

PROTECTIVE Service Officers will patrol Ringwood train station from 10am daily if the Coalition wins November’s state election.

Ringwood state Liberal MP Dee Ryall and Opposition police spokesman Edward O’Donohue made the announcement on Thursday as part of the party’s broader daytime PSO shift policy.

Under the policy, PSOs will patrol Ringwood and up to 20 of Melbourne’s other most dangerous stations from 10am daily.

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PSOs currently operate from 6pm until the last train and the coalition will employ 100 new PSOs to cover the additional earlier shift.

The latest Crime Statistics Agency figures supplied to Maroondah Leader show Ringwood is Melbourne’s fifth most dangerous station behind Flinders Street, Southern Cross, Dandenong and Sunshine.

A total of 159 offences were recorded at the station in the 12 months to June 2018, of which 99 offences occurred before 6pm.

Ringwood RSL president David Jamison, Ringwood MP Dee Ryall and Opposition police spokesman Edward O'Donohue at Ringwood railway station. Photos: Daniel Pockett

Mr O’Donohue said the daytime shift would be introduced sometime in 2019 if the Coalition formed government. He did not give a dollar figure for the pledge but said it would be covered in the party’s police costings.

“Ringwood is not only a station that has high crime but it is a busy hub for people … this is a priority station for us because of those two factors,” he said.

Ringwood RSL president David Jamison, pictured Ringwood MP Dee Ryall and Opposition police spokesman Edward O'Donohue, has welcomed the Coalition’s pledge of a new daytime PSO shift.

Police Minister Lisa Neville did not say if the Government would introduce a daytime PSO shift. She said they had already funded 100 new officers.

“PSOs have already started to patrol trains as part of a key community safety commitment of the Labor Government, and as more PSOs come online will be progressively rolled out to other modes of transport and public places,” she said.

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