Police in the north-west are so “hamstrung” they’re putting more jobs on hold than they are attending to because of a lack of staff and resources, according to one senior sergeant.
And unless Victoria Police immediately bolsters frontline police numbers, he says crime rates and officers’ mental health will only deteriorate.
The north-west senior sergeant, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Star Weekly that while Victoria Police was doing “everything it can” to address members’ stress and fatigue, the underlying issues weren’t being tackled.
“One of the biggest stressors is the workload,” he said. “The organisation needs to do something about the workload – and that means we need more police.
“In terms of having additional police to help you do your job, it’s the worst I’ve seen. The guys are as full as a fat lady’s sock.”
His concerns have been echoed by more than 80 per cent of senior sergeants across the state, who have reported many jobs “regularly” go unattended.
In a damning senior sergeant opinion survey, conducted by the Police Association, officers said public safety was being compromised and the community put at risk because of under-staffing.
According to the survey results, a quarter of priority jobs were “regularly held” for more than an hour.
The north-west senior sergeant said he and his colleagues were “quite startled” by the survey’s findings.
“I’ve been with Victoria Police for [about} 30 years and I sort of hoped that this was just the bottom of the cycle,” the senior sergeant said.
“And I sort of hoped that [senior command] would wake up and they would see we’re really short in people and redress that by sending people from elsewhere. And I’ve realised that hasn’t happened because there aren’t any police.”
The Police Association last Wednesday called for an extra 3300 frontline police in the next six years. On Thursday, the state government announced it would move to fast track by a year the deployment of more than 400 officers, including 300 first-responders.
Police Association secretary Ron Iddles said that while he welcomed the government’s commitment that showed “it is listening and finally recognising we are in the midst of a critical resource crisis”, short-term commitments were not enough to fix the problem.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said the state government had provided $26.2 million to expedite use of the 406 police.
“We aren’t wasting a second in making sure Victoria Police has the resources it needs to cope with growing demand for police,” she said.
Another 21 police officers and 20 Protective Services Officers graduated from the police academy last Friday, and are expected to hit the streets this week.
