27th June 2022
With about eighteen thousand sworn Police in Victoria, the question of ‘where are you?’, is totally legitimate.
The Community Advocacy Alliance Inc. (CAA) has received numerous complaints about the lack of service to Victorians by VicPol.
Complaints range from police simply not being visible generally, to police stations being closed, to non-attendance of police to incidents, and calls for help from the public, and too few foot and mobile patrols.
This phenomenon is exacerbated by a complete apathy to their task by many police, particularly at Police Stations. The most egregious complaints relate to laziness and the lack of interest of police members, failing to even make a basic effort to police. In many cases, police do not even make excuses.
The answer is complex and multifaceted, but when one looks at NSW, a State that is geographically three and a half times larger than Victoria and has approximately two million more citizens with two thousand fewer police. The police there seem to be achieving remarkable results, if it is purely a numbers game.
Perhaps it is not the numbers but how they are used.
All the much-heralded increases in police numbers in Victoria have not seen an increase in the quality of Service Delivery experienced by the community.
Thankfully, there are still many dedicated and effective police looking after us. To them, we are greatly indebted, but their efforts are often thwarted by the less than enthusiastic, lazy, or just plain apathetic colleagues.
Competent police continually having to work more of the less than desirable shifts carrying the bulk of the workload while their apathetic colleagues receive the same allowances and benefits will eventually wear down the most committed who are likely to move to the other side for their mental survival.
Apathy is contagious; this easier option can eventually sway the most dedicated.
Major issues faced by the inability of the police to perform their task are structural and cultural by nature and feed the apathy epidemic sweeping the force.
These issues are not limited to but include,
- Service delivery
From outside the organisation, it appears that Service Delivery has been transposed with Service Efficiency.
- Training
The demise of much of the face-to-face learning based on a false argument of efficiency has compromised the effectiveness of training. The efficiency is questionable, but all the non-formal tangibles of face-to-face training are lost. This reduces training effectiveness and the capacity of police to compare themselves to their peers, an invaluable benefit. Competition is healthy.
Too much reliance on online training provides the apathetic with an excuse to hide on a computer (training) and is counterproductive to a good Police Force.
- Police mobile patrols
As far as the CAA resources would allow, it has been established that many Police Stations are only capable of maintaining Night Shift Patrols that are numerically the same as thirty years ago. Additionally, with the new policies around Domestic Violence reports that take a minimum of four hours per incident (often longer), many areas are left at night with no patrol capacity.
Any wonder the community feels unsafe.
- Task Forces
Including all other special efforts or dedicated Policing groups is the antithesis of good policing. Each of these groups and there is a need for some, highlights a Police failure. The crime should have been prevented in the first place. Task Forces or similar groups are routinely inefficient in a global sense. The staffing of these groups has to come from somewhere, and that usually means the General Duties Police, further reducing their capacity to prevent crime, so the vicious cycle perpetually expands.
Management finds it easy to set up a task group but not so easy to shut it down as the staff become comfortable in that environment, explaining why many groups last for years.
- Poor supervision
This failure extends far into the rank structure and is a significant contributor. Police Managers are not held to proper account for staff failings, a major flaw and an area where blame-shifting is endemic. Lazy managers create lazy subordinates.
The bottom line is that the organisation has turned its back on its core function and motto, “Tenez le Droit” (Uphold the right).
These are just a sample of the issues identified by the CAA as significant contributors to the failure of policing in Victoria.
The CAA is concerned that unless a pragmatic and realistic approach is taken to these and other issues, the decline in Policing will accelerate.
As if we as a community needed more pressure from crime.
It will be a lack of funding that is causing this situation.
Look at the big build, the rail crossing removal, the money spent on cancelling the east west
extension.
Where do you think the money has gone ??
Totally agree, we live on the boundary between Hobsons Bay and Wyndham Councils, ( near the intersection of Point Cook and Dunnings Roads) the level of speeding, hoon driving is at plague proportions, but the police presence during the week and weekends is practically non-existent.
It has been like this for years, despite the very significant growth in population.
Bring back the Reservist
Police now have pso and civil servants and watchhouse staff in grey uniforms allegedly to free them up … well so what is the true and actual personnel count.
Despite this they have never been poorer at customer service or more disrespected by the public who once backed them. They are in many cases lazy..ride … disinterested and arbitrary in their policing. Yet they found time and funds to have all the best equipment..crowd control toys etc …recently taking their toys out to trial them on the citizens they swore to protect. Victpol is politically influenced like never before in its history.
In victoria we have police..Police pso… Police custody officers… civil servants.. fishery officers… park rangers… sheriff’s… maritime services officers … and God knows how many more… we are over regulated unless of course you’re a gang member or a criminal!
Who ever prior t o any election put this over enforcement under delivering model to us the people?
Get rid of this parasites on the public purse swanning around in The best cars and boats with the best gear money can buy…and give us a police force that actually serves us.
This whole state is so far off the rails people have not seen the incidious creeping deterioration.
Wake up …. you’ve been taken for mugs by this bloke and his so called government and frankly the alternative hasn’t shown any backbone whatsoever.
The Chief Comm is a complete dud and a fish rots from the head as they say. They need to stop pushing more jabs on members . The apathy is palpable. It seems a complete overhaul of Police Command is needed for a new attitude.
Hello CAA. I can tell you where a lot were a few months ago. Walking down Fitzroy street celebrating gay pride or running from the city to St Kilda carrying a rainbow flag. Im sure that solved the problems of the world. And when I dared to question why tax payers money was spent on this, Deputy commissioner Patterson wanted to sack me. It is obvious that the amount of desk jockeys has increased. Vicpol should bring in a razor gang and hire me as chief slasher. Any woke, non operational job would be slashed and the member put back out on the van. I’m sure the state of Victoria and the community we serve would be happier with that than sending a high ranking member overseas to attend a gay summit.
So what has gone wrong in Victoria? 18,000 police to service 6,600,000 people is a ratio of 1:366, high by world standards and the highest of any Australian State. Where police service delivery is failing dismally in Victoria therefore comes not from the numbers, but from the HR organisational management strategy which is heavily skewed towards non core functions. Trained operational sworn staff are poorly managed from the top. This is based on a corporate failure to prioritise core policing community safety activities above a plethora of wokey “back room” “airy fairy” politically motivated (office hours / weekday) activities that are soaking up “street policing” resources. This won’t change until the Command Group of 16 “Commissioners” chooses to, or is required to make it change or is replaced.
You have nailed it John; too many unnecessary ancillary jobs to the detriment of core policing functions
This article should be frequired reading by all reporters and media commentators in this State. We are assailed daily in print and nightly on TV with more assaults, ram raids, knifings and increasingly more gun violence. This low cost, low grade reportage does nothing to address the issues this state faces a key one being protecting the commmunity. Its time we asked the media to in turn ask Police Command and the Minister why is it that we are the most heaviy resourced and policed state, way more than NSW, yet we have such appaling performance from our Police? The mis management of this key resource is like so many in this state – it is costing taxpayers billions and in respect to policing and law and order it is costing many innocent people life changing experiences thgrough assault, hit runs and car jackings etc.
Can’t add a single thing here, as all comments show we see what it has gotten to. Now its just a matter of supporting organizations such as the CAA so that the word gets out in the right way and through the right channels. Cross your fingers and paddle like hell towards shore before the boat sinks.