“Just 58 per cent of those surveyed said they were ‘satisfied with policing services’, a massive fall from 73.1 per cent from the year before.” – HS 6th June ’24.
As indicated by our chairman, former Chief Commissioner Kel Glare, the issues stem from the inconsistency and, in our view, a poor police response to COVID-19. Still, some solutions can be implemented if the organisation is serious about lifting the community’s confidence, which should be a given.
The Victoria Police response was,
“the drop in public confidence is due to the survey being carried out online.”
The community is not looking for excuses; they are looking for action.
Puerile, ‘the dog ate my homework’ type excuses exacerbate, not diminish, community feelings. It’s time to step up and address the issues at hand.
Perhaps VicPol would be better off looking outside their management bubble to determine and implement solutions that may give the public confidence in their Force.
Here are a few suggestions,
- Review the CAA 100.3 https://caainc.org.au/?s=Plan+100.3&doing_wp_cron=1717636142.282346010
- Make policing at the community level the force priority over everything else,
- Re-prioritise Proactive policing as the force’s main activity.
- Undertake an extensive review of upgrading and modernising policies to be fit for purpose.
- Review urgently upgrading policies. A senior officer sneezes, and the repercussions are felt at the coal face as the upgrading practices push up members to fill the gap. Creating specialist relieving positions at all levels is cheaper and more efficient.
- Create a Force Reserve following the Military model. Releasing hundreds of members for general operational duties.
- Introduce KPIs for all ranks above Constable, which are reviewed monthly and compared against actual performance. Failure to adjust should instigate sanctions. Hard-working Police should not have to carry poor performers.
- Review all apparent Service Delivery initiatives to identify those that are Service Efficiency, not Service Delivery, and when the two collide, Service Delivery must prevail.
- Review the number of Executive positions as cost savings in that area can be reallocated to the frontline. Many have been created without a business case to justify the position.
- Reintroduce the intermediate officer ranks to provide more significant operational support, freeing up inspectors to actively provide leadership in the field. This can be done at little to no cost by not increasing the Officer ranks numerically but by realigning existing Officers.
- Review recruiting processes to avoid applicants waiting excessively for results and call-ups. At a time when numbers are down, creative measures are required to train more recruits, and if that means introducing shift work during training, so be it; trainees need to adjust to shift work immediately after they graduate anyway.
- Take a Force stance on the introduction of Electronic Monitoring of perpetrators to reduce police demand and achieve greater compliance, particularly in the area of Domestic Violence and Juvenile recidivist management.
- Ensure that the 50,000-eye road watch is implemented as an urgent initiative to reduce road tolls. https://caainc.org.au/50,000-eyes-road-watch/.
- Ring fence the Highway patrol so they can concentrate on the Road toll and not be purloined for other extraneous police duties.
- Take a leadership role in public issues like drugs and other community issues. This is not to encourage the Force bleating on these issues from one political side or the other of any public discourse but rather purely on the facts and the practicalities police face.
- Police should take a strong victim-centric stand and support the implementation of reparation as a Force policy.
- Additionally, the Force should also adopt a policy of not supporting plea bargains in all prosecutions undertaken by the Force. A criminal charged with an offence should not be something that can be traded away for convenience. The guilt or innocence of that particular matter can only be determined by the Court.
- Ensure the Force responds to all groups potentially intent on disrupting public order in an even-handed way. https://caainc.org.au/police-pride-march-a-valuable-lesson/
- Urgently review the uniform dress code, ensuring members wearing mufti hybrid with police paraphernalia revert to the uniform. If the uniform is not fit for purpose, modify the uniform. Emulating American Special Forces is churlish and dangerous. If there are legitimate reasons for plain clothes, all weapons, etc, must not be visible to the general public. permission should only be given on a case-by-case basis. When Special duties and the like, move around in uniform rather than mufti, they increase the visible Police presence an imperative to build community confidence.
Victoria Police is an independent entity and must be free from the ideological pressure of the politicians of the day. It can and should provide leadership on social issues based on the facts.
Moving the Force priority to the frontline uniformed specialist general Police locally, impacteing their resourcesas an absolute last resort will go a long way to improving public confidence in Police. If additional police are required for specific events, the resources must be drawn from non-operational areas.
That a swathe of non-operational Police are taken from their tasks for a day will have little long-term impact, but removing operational vehicles from their patrols can devastate service delivery to the community, which should be the priority.
The Chief Commissioner once said words to the effect that recruits break their neck to get into uniform and, after four years, apply the same rigour to get out of it.
Our response is that force management has to apply itself to creating creative initiatives to stop this phenomenon, as these factors bleed the frontline from experience and expertise where they are most needed. These members are the Force’s leading and most important resource.
Above all else, the community wants you to be there, even when they don’t need you, as the reassurance is invaluable and coincidentally helps prevent crime and disorder.
Deal with the issues before they manifest rather than picking up the pieces later.
Under the Andrews cabal, Victoria has descended in to Fascist territory, corrupt politicians being served by corrupt Judiciary, corrupt beaurarcracy, Public service and police force.
Confidence shot, Ir’s just a gulag.
If the survey result was skewed because it was conducted online, how about a survey being conducted face to face, including focus groups?
Surveys can be notoriously inaccurate, and this depends on the style and type of questions being asked.
I recall Chief Commissioner, Mr. Miller, once saying that the true measure of police effectiveness is how safe the community feels in their homes and in public places – now that’s the real question!
Yes, I’ve got a vested interest based on my 34 years in Victoria Police, and yes, I support VicPol in principle, but a big NO to much of the current way they do business. While many of the issues needing remedial action are in this CAA article, there is one overarching flaw in the current VicPol business model that could go a long way to regaining community confidence. That is “address its failing community interface”. That is more than “service delivery”, which is very important, the big issue is “image / brand management! The VicPol “brand”has been seriously but not irreversibly damaged! Victoria Police must address its “rebranding” as a matter of urgency. This means changing the way the community (its customers) see it! While the solution is a complex mix of vision, media and interaction, a good start would be to change the uniform to a more community policing style snd ditch the black on black US paramilitary dress. Look how much better the NSW Police appear in its “blues”! Next, get back on proactive patrol! With over 16,000 sworn members, they can hardly put one car per station “on the road”. Why? Because over 50% of them are in non operational cushy 9 to 5 jobs. Many of which don’t justify the “police” salary that reflects the complexity and risks of active police work”. This means that there must be an urgent organisational review and restructure the Force in line with its core business requirements.
“…..ditch the black on black US paramilitary dress….” I can only guess why the black uniform was [unfortunately] introduced many years ago, but I suggest that the idea has failed [backfired]……and now contributes very negatively, perhaps subconsciously, to the public perception of VicPol. TV entertainment broadcasts in Victoria are saturated with mainly American police dressed in black. In many cases their edited behaviour clashes with desired VicPol culture and practice. This matter of black uniforms should be investigated, and if proven, corrected before putting more members out on the “coal face”. Black uniforms might serve a valuable strategic and psychological purpose for heavily armed squads, but paradoxically, not for general duties interface with the public.
NFP – The Black uniform is not actually black but salute blue (a rose by any other name) and it was introduced by then Chief Commissioner Ken Lay to make the Service (now reverted back to Force) sharper. Alledgedley there were 80 differenct versions of the old uniform.(probably just as many as the current outfit)
The emulation of the American police dosn’t stop with the colour of the uniform. Attitudes of Police seem to have followed suit.
Additionally VicPol members wear mufti exposing weapons like the American special forces and have all but dispensed with their symbol of office, their Police Cap,
Unable to be distinguished from other Hi-Viz adorned workers io the field further agravated at night, is a work place safety hazard. The lack of colour contrast of the Police shoulder patch just adds to the lack of visibility of Police.
The current uniform is often scruffy and unproffessinal. Inevitably many police need to introduce their footwear to the ‘nugget tin’ and an iron on their shirts would smarten some slops up. The opposite of its intention and with American look the respect has suffered.
As cost will be an issue, a 12 months phase in period would be tolerable to achive a proffesional Force replacing old unifroms as they need replacemnt staring with the shirts and police Caps.
Yes, it is time to dispence with this folley and return to an Australain Police uinform.
To name the widely perceived black uniform Salute Blue is a creative nonsense. If the VicPol uniform was to be changed mainly to enhance police image, as is desirable, it would be appropriate to also review the utility of the current VicPol [baseball] cap. It’s one advantage over the “old” cap is that it is more secure on the head. However, it is not an emblem of authority, nor does it protect against UV on the ears and neck. Why is it very unusual to see senior police wearing the cap….? Is it because they consider it to make the wearer look crass…?
Agree with nearly all of your advice. I’m not sure about KPI’s if not done right they can become a goal in their own right and those who work under them often end up doing the easiest work that will meet the KPI’s rather than use initiative. Perhaps they could work for senior officers, say a minimum number of patrols in their regions, time to respond, number of burgs etc solved.
The uniform, you don’t go nearly far enough. We need a return to the pale blue or even white, ties etc as often as possible. The current uniform is intimidating and many who wear it look better than thugs. You want the public to trust and engage with police rather than avoid them.
When they protect their own members from crimes they commit, no wonder there is no confidence in them. I am a victim of one of their own and the overwhelming evidence was dismissed I am exposing them for what they have done/doing. Not remaining silent and it is my right!