Victoria Police has accrued $117.5m in savings from vacancies, latest figures show
Victoria Police has failed to stem an exodus from its ranks and is funding daily operations from more than $100m in savings gleaned from hundreds of staff vacancies, leaving the community “less safe amid a rise in violent crimes”.
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Victoria Police is being forced to fund daily operations with more than $100m it saved from hundreds of staff vacancies.
Amid an ongoing resourcing crisis, the organisation had accrued – as at April 30 – $117.5m in savings from vacancies, which have been estimated to be as high as 800.
Data released to the parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee found almost $30m of that was used to pay officer entitlements, including personal leave in advance, accident make-up pay and unfunded additional superannuation contributions.
A further $7.2m was used to pay overtime and recall while the majority, $84.6m, contributed to an increase in WorkCover premiums.
The force has been affected by a flood of post-Covid resignations combined with hundreds of sworn police off duty on WorkCover – the majority of those experiencing mental health injuries.
In May 2022 the state government committed to recruiting an additional 502 police.
But despite meeting that commitment, actual numbers fell from 16,159 police officers to 15,842 as at June 30 last year.
Police Minister Anthony Carbines told a budget inquiry hearing last month that the force was facing a range of recruitment challenges.
But opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said money saved from unfilled positions should be used for recruitment, not daily operations.
“Victoria police have nearly 1000 vacancies, leaving stations closed across Victoria because Labor can’t manage money,” he said.
“The additional funds should be putting police on the beat, not covering Labor’s $84m increase to WorkCover premiums. Labor’s mismanagement of the state’s finances is leaving the community less safe amid a continuing rise in violent crimes.”
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said it was not unusual for a large organisation to have unfunded employee entitlements.
“This, among other things, occurs when employees take more leave in advance than anticipated or more employees are on WorkCover and Victoria Police covers part of their salary,” she said.
“Victoria Police so far this financial year has used a proportion of the $117.5m saved from staff vacancies towards a $27.4m deficit in unfunded entitlements.
“With a $4.2bn annual budget Victoria Police regularly directs savings from one area of the organisation to another. Even when fully staffed, we will always have areas where Victoria Police has savings or underspending which can be reallocated.”
A government spokeswoman said how Victoria Police allocated its budget was its concern.
“We have invested a record $4.5bn into Victoria Police to recruit more than 3600 officers,” she said.
“Our significant investment is working – the Police Academy is full with double squads of 48 people graduating every month.”
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