Putting boots on the ground

PROTECTING Victorians from crime means more police on the frontline. Crime statistics reported by the Herald Sun are stark.

‘The only way to protect families is to put more police boots on the ground.’

PROTECTING Victorians from crime means more police on the front line. Crime statistics reported by the Herald Sun are stark. Crime has increased by 13.4 per cent. In some regional areas it has more than doubled.

But statistics alone do not tell the story of a state under siege by criminals, including young offenders who return to the streets on bail, or after a short term in detention, to commit further crime.

Now, 329 senior sergeants across the state, the supervisors who make the decisions on which calls can be met and how quickly, are finding themselves stressed and often overwhelmed.

While the community rightly expects a call for help to be answered within five to 10 minutes, this doesn’t always happen. Some senior sergeants say they must decide between “serious crime’’ calls and “very serious crimes’’.

The Police Association survey found 26 per cent of general duties senior sergeants regularly held Priority 1 jobs for an hour or more. Some 80 per cent reported jobs regularly went unattended.

Ron Iddles, secretary of The Police Association, Victoria

There is a growing culture of lawlessness. Police Association secretary Ron Iddles says the state’s rapidly increasing population, the rising crime rate and what he calls the “increase in the complexity of policing tasks’’ are delaying response times.

Taskforces to combat cyber crime, youth crime and bikie gangs place heavy demands on the force.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton is working hard to deal with a very complex and evolving culture of criminality and, while there can be no doubt his taskforces are effective, he simply lacks the broader resources he needs.

The Police Association is calling for 3301 new police officers by 2022, or a modest 550 officers a year over six years when compared with a projected population growth of 100,000 a year.

The Andrews Government must respond. There is no other way to cut back on a crime wave described by Opposition Leader Matthew Guy as a tsunami.

Many officers are at breaking point. One senior sergeant in the space of a shift had to choose between sending police to a five-car accident, helping an injured person trapped in a building, dealing with a report of a missing 12-year-old girl, or responding to a shoplifter being held by a store owner.

Matthew Guy in Paterson Lakes to talk Kingston crime wave. Sate Opposition Leader Matthew Guy in Patterson Lakes to talk about the crime rate in Kingston. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Families who have had to wait for police say their lives were in danger.

It took police a half-hour to arrive when thieves invaded a Caroline Springs property.

The family made two calls to 000 after the youths armed with baseball smashed their way through a glass door, demanding keys to the family’s cars before casually driving them away.

The rise in crime also poses problems when offenders are brought to justice. Juvenile crime continues when teenagers are put in detention.

A WorkSafe report seen by the Herald Sun says staff are in fear of their lives following a rampage by young offenders at Malmsbury.

Staff believe offenders who broke into administration offices were able to access employee records. One officer said a recently released “client’’, as young offenders are called, appeared outside his home shouting threats and insults.

Such brazen lawlessness is unacceptable. The only way Victorians can be protected is for the government to put more police boots on the ground. Lives are at stake.

Infrastructure Victoria chief executive Michel Masson. Picture: AAP

DAN’S ROAD TAX CRASH

PREMIER Daniel Andrews has destroyed the credibility of his own creation by ruling out the car congestion tax proposed by Infrastructure Victoria.

Mr Andrews established Infrastructure Victoria at a cost to the taxpayer of $40 million over four years.

Now that the Premier has swept the ground from under it, Victorians can only ask why Infrastructure Victoria was needed in the first place.

It has seven board members and a CEO clearly at odds with the Premier. Chief executive Michel Masson says he will continue to fight for a road pricing scheme and the recommendation still holds.

This surely puts Mr Masson and Mr Andrews on a collision course.

The Herald Sun condemned the congestion tax, which will be a relief to motorists.

A regressive tax is the wrong way to go and poses the question of what taxpayers are getting for what appears to be another waste of their money.

Dumping the East West Link, which is costing taxpayers $1.2 billion on latest figures, remains a case in contention. Infrastructure Victoria still has it as part of its long-term transport strategy.

The state’s biggest infrastructure project was signed, sealed and on the way to being delivered when this flip-flopping Premier tore up the contracts.

The Premier has done the same thing over the CFA dispute by supporting a takeover attempt of the volunteer organisation by the hardline United Firefighters Union, which is likely to cost taxpayers at least $160 million.

It’s no way to run a state.