It is now essential that Victoria Police review their operational approach to the prevention and detection of crime.
We accept they are working under staff pressures; however, the time for using that as an excuse has passed.
A St Kilda Chemist was assaulted in his shop in the middle of the day, trying to protect his staff and his property, the shop stock, from a light-fingered, aggressive male many years his junior.
Several things are very disturbing, not least of all, it took twenty-four (24) hours for the police to respond to the 000 calls for help.
That makes the ambulance ramping times look positively rapid in comparison.
But if the police were doing their job well, this incident would probably not have occurred at all, and that is the frustration with the current mindset of policing.
The Chemist shop located in St. Kilda has been targeted on many occasions by apparent drug-affected individuals, over a very long period, and the behaviour necessitates the owners to use 000 very regularly. This was the longest no-show of police, and it was just good luck rather than good police work that the assault did not continue to escalate further.
The injuries sustained by the Chemist are bad enough, but do they have to wait until it is a fatality before the Police respond?
Given the age of the victim, he is extremely lucky not to have suffered fatal one-punch injuries.
The CAA membership is well aware of the trauma associated with a one-punch death as experienced by another of our members, who is a strong advocate for legislative change.
The two owners of the business have made every effort to encourage the police to make their neighbourhood safe for everyone and have been regular attendees at the Police information forums to provide feedback on the issues.
We note that, when interviewed by the media, Charlotte, Russell’s wife, corrected the Secretary of the Police Association, who was claiming the percentage of Police unavailable was much lower than the truth, which is closer to 25%. A very embarrassed Secretary had to admit on live TV that her figures were more accurate. Charlotte is a member of the CAA and actively works for the good of others in her community.
But the situation that they found themselves in is aggravated by the amount of effort the couple put into making St. Kilda a safer place.
VicPol has made as many promises as they have had management turnovers, and each wants to put their own stamp on the territory.
The promise of more patrols (proactive crime-prevention strategies) can happen for short periods if they are lucky, but are generally ineffective, as this incident demonstrates. It begs the question: where was the foot patrol when this incident happened, and why did it take 24 hours for the police to attend?
Had the Police attended when the first alarm was made, it may have prevented the assault.
But if there had been a foot patrol doing its job in the vicinity, then the assault would not have occurred at all.
The answer probably lies with the attitude of local police and their command, with a questionable attitude to preventing crime. They can’t see past reported crime.
They haven’t worked out that they can reduce what may be a serious work overload by reducing crime in the first place.
The numbers game will again be trotted out as a defence. Still, the community is sick of hearing this mantra and wants the Police management to provide leadership and exercise creative strategies to reduce crime.
The available Police resources can be used to maximum efficiency to address problems like this, and there are a plethora of options open to police commanders to use resources more effectively, but little public knowledge that they are even trying.
They just keep playing the same staffing refrain.
The public would accept some problems in resourcing if they are satisfied that management is trying to resolve them, and this hinges on open and frank discussions with the community, not on the traditional excuse mantra.
It looks very much like nothing much will happen until the Chief Commissioner issues directions to achieve the reduced crime environment.
It will need some Police managers to be held to account for failing to manage the volume of reported crime under their geographical area of responsibility due to a lack of proactive measures.
Being held to account and sanctioned would change attitudes overnight for the betterment of the Force, the Police members and the community.
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When on earth will violent criminals face REAL punishment?? Violence against People & Animals IS Out Of Control!!
Build MORE GAOLS!! They should not be let off so lightly.. Everyone is sick of this ‘Slap On The Wrist’ RUBBISH! & NO Severe Punishments.. Means they WILL keep being a DANGER TO SOCIETY! The Justice System Has NO Common Sense!! Wake Up!!
There is an even greater & bitter irony to this assault story.
Apparently, VIC POL were conducting an “exercise” on Chapel Street, at the Windsor end, replete with ~20 officers, at the same time as the assault occurred and the initial triple zero call was made.
Windsor is literally minutes away from the pharmacy and even faster with the use of sirens.
Yet there was zero attendance to the pharmacy in relation to this assault for 24 hours!
This is despite four calls in total to VIC POL, reporting the assault.
In fact, we were told explicitly that there were no officers or vans available and if we wanted to report the assault, we had to go to St Kilda Police Station, ourselves.
We were told that we would have to queue at the counter and wait to lodge the report.
Russell actually DID attend St Kilda Police Station at 7:30 am the next morning but after waiting 30 minutes, had not progressed in the queue.
I am sure that we would still be waiting for VIC POL had there not been media exposure….
We both cannot believe that we had to wait 24 hours after reporting an assault in a pharmacy!
The failure of police to attend this serious criminal assault is totally unacceptable for professional organisation responsible for safeguarding the community. I hope that this will be thoroughly investigated and those supervisors responsible punished. Our charming Premier should no longer use some weak excuses as she does with boring monotony.
In the 1980’s police always ranked near the top in surveys of how people perceived trustworthiness of different occupations, with car dealers second from the bottom and politicians at the very end! I wonder how the police would fare these days. Suffice to talk to people and you get the picture of deep disenchantment. I am confident that the great majority of operational members are keen to serve as best as they can, but, regrettably, are far to often prevented from doing so by the imposition of political correctness. It makes me think too, where is the politically independent, democratically run Victoria Police of the past? The Commissioners of the Mick Miller and Kel Glare calibre, fiercely safeguarding political independence of the force, have been replaced by political appointees, so no wonder what we are witnessing these days. Let us hope that CCP Bush will turn the clock back. The community of Victoria deserve
it!!