Repeat offenders face crackdown under new Victoria police chief Shane Patton

Victoria Police’s new police chief backs remand and not bail for repeat offenders who face court

’Community safety is the focus, first, second and third,’ says new Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton. Picture Jay Town

Recidivists facing court for serious crimes will be a key target of Victoria’s new top cop under his vision to improve community safety and faith in the force.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has warned repeat offenders that police will be pushing for higher level criminals to be placed on remand rather than being set free on bail under the no “free kick” strategy.

Mr Patton has also vowed to use the force’s modernisation reforms during the past five years to flood the Victorian community with police to help create a greater sense of security for residents.

His strategy is under a broad back-to-basics philosophy drawn from his 42 years’ police service.

Mr Patton is advocating to his members that community safety must be the priority for his term, including providing high-level customer service.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Australian, Mr Patton also warned that the terror threat had not subsided during the COVID-19 pandemic but other crime patterns had shifted significantly.

In Melbourne’s first lockdown, there had been a marked reduction in many categories of ­offending although the rates had climbed again once the state went out of lockdown.

Now that Melbourne is back in lockdown, Victoria Police is expecting offences such as domestic violence and online-related crime to re-emerge.

Mr Patton said he made no apologies for advocating a back-to-basics philosophy and this would include making youth crime gangs accountable.

Police would be striving to keep repeat offenders on remand, for example, rather than encouraging them to be freed on bail. “We’ve gone through our modernisation (phase) and now I think it’s time for a back-to-basics approach, with community safety being the focus, first, second and third,” he said.

“For me, that’s what it’s going to be about — community safety.”

He said he would be focused on pushing down high-level crime such as robberies and violent offending but at the same time building a community perception — as well as a reality — that Victoria was a safe place.

“It’s us doing everything to drive down crime through our visible police presence,” he said.

When more serious offenders arrived in court, the strategy would be to push for their incarceration. “The more serious ones — we will be remanding them where possible,” he said.

“We are very much pro-arrest for serious, high-end offenders.’’

These offenders, he said, “don’t get a free kick in society any more from us”.

Mr Patton has held many of the force’s most senior jobs, having progressively become the public face at the tail-end of predecessor Graham Ashton’s stint in the top job.

Mr Patton is described by insiders as being notoriously hardworking and devoted to detail, assuming the job during one of the state’s most difficult periods.

The pandemic response is being run by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, with police playing a crucial support role to help achieve the health objectives.

Mr Patton said while terrorism had not been a high-profile issue for police during the pandemic, there had never been a sense that it was no longer a live threat.

“The risk of terrorism, while not front and centre at the moment, is still blatantly there.

“We absolutely still have a focus on terrorism.

“The rise of right-wing extremism is an absolute concern for us. The ISIS residual is still there and bubbling away,” he said.

Mr Patton said police were still closely watching the return of ­suspected overseas terrorists to Australia, and their wives and children, and it was just as important to cover off the threat of wives having been radicalised and made active.

On youth gangs, he said police would continue to deal with the long-running problem, not by concentrating on ethnicity but on the crimes that were committed.

“It’s not about their appearance or nationality, it’s about their conduct,’’ he said.

“It’s important that we target the behaviour — and we will with the gangs.”