Safety fears as police stations close, intervention orders not served on time, police vans sit empty
As Melbourne battles a crimewave, Victoria Police is facing a mass exodus of frontline officers, with one in five members warning they are likely to walk away from the job.
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Victoria Police is facing a mass exodus of frontline officers with one in five members warning they are likely to leave the force in the next year.
The move would take almost 3,500 officers off the beat, exacerbating what police have described as a resourcing crisis.
It comes as police whistleblowers have warned that major crimes including sexual assaults are taking up to three years to be investigated.
Melbourne is also battling a crimewave that includes shootings, teens being violently robbed and the Bourke St rampage.
Stations are also closing unexpectedly, intervention orders are not being served on time, and police vans are sitting empty because of staff shortages.
A study of 1,039 Victorian officers by researchers at RMIT and Swinburne Universities has found staffing levels have left 67 per cent feeling burnt out.
A further 55 per cent of respondents said they were likely to explore other career opportunities, while 21 per cent said they were likely or very likely to leave the police workforce in the next year.
“The workload and pressure on members is ridiculous and the job is no longer attractive or enjoyable which is why they cannot recruit sufficient members to keep up with attrition of members,” one constable said.
Another said: “(the) workload is currently unrealistic and stress on members is at an all-time high. Morale is at the lowest I have seen.”
More than 700 Victoria Police employees remain off duty on WorkCover while 500 police have left the force on average over the past four years.
Police association secretary Wayne Gatt has been lobbying the state government to incentivise policing as a career.
In a letter to police minister Anthony Carbines last month, Mr Gatt urged the government to eliminate the cost of completing initial police training.
It included providing free accommodation and meals at the academy, the removal of the fee to sit the police entry exam, and the reimbursement of any medical fees incurred in joining the force.
It is understood Mr Carbines is yet to respond to the letter.
On Friday the state’s top cop said Victoria Police was facing a “challenging” time and had a large number of vacancies it needed to fill.
But Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said the force was recruiting more staff than were leaving and the public could feel confident they would see police on the beat.
“This survey was done I think around 3 months ago, we also get notifications in advance of resignations, so it’s nowhere near that,” Mr Patton said.
“When I say that though, we do have a large number of vacancies which we’re addressing.”
He said the force’s attrition rate of serving members had remained relatively stagnant, sitting at 4.7 per cent last year and 3.16 per cent this year.
The force had also recorded a significant uptick in applicants since it launched a major recruitment drive earlier this year.
“We’re recruiting more people than are leaving,” Mr Patton said.
“We had last month the largest number of applications we’ve ever seen — more than 1000 applications since the early April. We’ve been recruiting people in double squads and we’re on target to continue that in the near future.”
Mr Patton said there were about 700 people enlisted at the police academy, with the facility due to be at capacity with 810 members by October.
“We always want more recruits, but we’re not going to be able to push them in sooner,” he said.
“Certainly we’ve got a lot of vacancies and we know that. We’ve been quite public about that since Covid and that’s something we’ve really been working on very hard.”
The study also found current staffing levels – some so low that services at stations across Victoria were impacted — left 67 per cent of respondents feeling burnt out.
Mr Patton said police stations would not be closed but the public might be faced with “counter suspensions”.
“Without wanting to be cute about it, it’s where the counter is closed but the service delivery still occurs from those stations and that will occur from time-to-time where we will have those counter suspensions due to some members going sick,” he said.
“As I said it’s a challenging time, but I can assure the service to the public, the patrols to the public are out there and that’s why from time to time we do suspend some counter service.
“It might mean you can’t get to a police station here, but you can go to the other one 10 minutes up the road to get your stat dec signed.
“The service we’re providing is the police out on the road, on the beat, in the vans, and there’s been no dissolution of that whatsoever.”
The government this week unveiled a $229m package to provide free secondary teaching degrees to tackle crippling staff shortages plaguing the education system.
It has committed to delivering an additional 502 police and 50 Protective Service Officers by 2025.
But Mr Gatt said with 800 unfilled vacancies, and several hundred more off on long-term sick leave the commitment was “akin to putting a bandaid over a shotgun wound.”
“We commend the Government for its commitment to funding these positions, but in reality, our numbers are less now than what they were when this announcement was made,” Mr Gatt said.
“Even with the 502 the government committed to, it’s net minus not net plus. We have a very, very long way to go before we’re back to square, let alone a gain.
“You can’t have a net gain until you are meeting attrition, and we are clearly not.
“Our members just over the last weekend had to respond to a vehicular attack in Bourke Street, an underworld murder in Keilor, teenage abductions and violence, and sadly, that’s becoming their business as usual. That diversity of these types of high impact crime is hard enough to deal with when you have adequate numbers, it becomes impossible when you don’t.”
Opposition police spokesman, Brad Battin, said police were facing increasing pressure after three of their toughest years ever.
“The Andrews Labor Government treated them as political pawns during Covid and now the state is broke, Labor cannot retain them,” he said.
“Less police will mean less safe streets across the state.”
Premier Daniel Andrews, who visited the police academy for a graduation ceremony on Thursday, said this week the government had not been alerted to any specific requests from Victoria Police about additional resources.
“There are ongoing discussions each week, each month. Everyday we are back and forth with our police command on every issue,” he said.
“A couple of weeks ago, we had a discussion about a whole range of different things that they want. That didn’t include additional police, I might add. The academy is full.
“There are a lot of resources there. “I’m not aware of any specific request around this issue.”
A Victoria Police insisted the organisation was recruiting more police than were exiting the force.
Ambulance services Gabrielle Williams on Friday denied that the state government had not invested adequately in Victoria Police, saying Victorian Labor had built its “brand” on backing frontline workers.
“We’ve invested in record levels in Victoria Police and the police minister and indeed the department are in constant conversation about their needs at any given time and that will continue,” she said.
“We’ve made it our brand, I think, to stand with those workforces and support them in whatever way we can.”
Last month, Victoria Police recorded the highest number of monthly police applications on record with more than 1000 received, he said.
“Police attrition levels are starting to stabilise, sitting at 4.72 per cent for the year to 31 August 2023 and 3.16 per cent so far this calendar year,” he said.
“Police reaching retirement age, many of whom delayed this decision during the pandemic, has driven member departures. This is a trend seen across police forces globally.
“Victoria Police workforce surveys show the percentage of staff considering leaving has remained stable and actually decreased slightly in the last year.
“A range of initiatives are being implemented to support the frontline as we continue to build our workforce.”
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