Staff numbers at Caroline Springs police station will be increased and opening hours extended before Christmas.
The move follows fears raised by north-west residents about police response times and increased criminal activity.
Melton police Inspector Stephen Mutton said 1700 extra police would be deployed across the state this year.
Caroline Springs police station planned to extend midweek opening hours to 10pm, and 9am-5pm shifts would operate every weekend.
“We’re working towards the station being consistently open on
weekends during the day, and evenings during the week, in the next two
months,” Inspector Mutton said.
“We’ve had the station open until 10pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
occasionally Saturdays for the past month or so, but we haven’t
advertised it.”
Inspector Mutton was unable to say how many extra staff the station would receive.
Residents in Taylors Hill and Taylors Lakes have formed safety
groups after reports of drug use and syringes being found in a park near
a primary school. Taylors Hill resident Cecilia Hernandez was one of
more than 1000 people who signed a petition calling for more police and
longer hours at the Caroline Springs station.
“There’s been a few incidents we’ve needed to call the police for, but it’s taken them up to four hours to arrive,” she said.
“People should have a right to feel safe, they should have a right to take their children to the park and feel safe.”
Caroline Springs Sergeant Jason Graham said Taylors Hill residents
were covered at all times and he had not received a serious complaint
since May 17.
“Our front counter might not always be open, but our response is 24 hours a day,” he said.
“There was one person of very bad character [living in Taylors Hill] but he’s now left. A young boy also found an empty deal bag in the park. But there’s been no problems lately.”
Crime in Melton city increased from 8296 reported incidents in 2011-12 to 8305
in 2012-13. Crime against the person was up 12.4 per cent, assault was
up 8.2 per cent and drug offences increased 9.7 per cent.
