The Source: Eddie McGuire suggests Melbourne needs to follow Los Angeles’ approach to tackling crime

Mr Melbourne himself has joined the debate over the city’s crime crisis by suggesting copying LA’s crackdown. But the boy from Broady is thinking more about Beverly Hills than Compton.

Eddie McGuire has weighed into the city’s crime crisis.

A new voice in the raging debate over the city’s crime crisis emerged on Monday: Mr Melbourne himself.

In an interview with The Australian, Eddie McGuire suggested his hometown needed a Los Angeles-style crackdown to encourage people to return to the CBD.

“Los Angeles went through this two years ago,” Mr McGuire said.

“They said: ‘Right, OK, what do we need to do?’ And the first answer was: ‘We’ve got to make the place safe’ … And as a result, it’s had the knock-on effect of people suddenly coming back there again.

“I think the key thing is, we know what the issue is. Now we have to address it.”

He said LA went through a similar crime crisis two years ago. Picture: AFL Tasmania

The irony, of course, is that parts of LA – like Compton or drug-ravaged Skid Row – remain more inhospitable than the mean streets of Melbourne.

Which explains why the boy from Broadmeadows, in a follow-up interview with 3AW, said he was thinking more about his experience specifically in Beverly Hills, the ritzy area home to many of Hollywood’s biggest stars, while suggesting LA more broadly still had its issues.

Nonetheless, he praised the “great job” done by The Australian’s intrepid reporter to put his ideas on the record.

McGuire suggested the state government should consider opening pop-ups in empty shops, subsidising rent for retailers, hiring security guards and putting more police on the beat.

In Beverly Hills, he said this meant you could “feel like you could walk down the street without getting robbed”. Sounds sensible to The Source.

McGuire suggested Melbourne needed an LA-style crackdown on crime. Picture: Ringo Chiu

As for the state government, however, senior minister Mary-Anne Thomas wasn’t biting on Monday when asked about McGuire’s intervention.

“Well, what I would say is that I’m focused on Chief Commissioner Mike Bush’s commitment to redesign the way in which policing occurs here in Victoria,” she said.

“The Chief Commissioner has said he’s absolutely committed to getting more police on the beat … And I welcome that because we know that a police presence will drive down crime.”

It’s a step in the right direction, to be sure. But as McGuire knows as well as anyone, more needs to be done.