23rd December 2018

The question of confidence in our Police Force, which is paramount and for this to grow the community needs to be satisfied their views are being heard and responded to.

The CAA has long advocated that empirical research into these issues needs to be available and released as part of the crime statistics to get a meaningful picture of the policing effectiveness.

Telling people there is less crime is not going to convince too many, experiencing the effects of crime in our community.

.For the vast majority of crimes reported the actual impact on people (victims) is a figure somewhere in the multiple of 10. Therefore, the victim rate for Victoria must realistically be somewhere near five million per annum.

With a state population of a bit over six million there are relatively speaking not to many Victorians not touched by or are victims of crime. The odds of you not being affected and becoming a Victim over a five-year period are remarkably slim.

The “will not happen to me,” Syndrome, is an antithesis in our society.

Quoting a reduction in the number of victims that these statistics indicate shows how poor the understanding is within VicPol of the impact on crime in the community

It would also help if Police Command actually spoke to some victims to get an understanding of the impact of crime, something they clearly do not have.

The CAA are absolutely astounded at the insensitivity and ignorance displayed by the Victoria Police executive to all victims.

Perhaps they meant to say complainants.

An apology would be magnanimous