Ivan Ray May’26

How often do you need to be bitten before chaining the Dog?

It seems that 10 years is not long enough.

Since its formation, the Community Advocacy Alliance has been arguing that the current approach to policing is flawed, and no effort has been made over this period to seriously address the issues we have continually raised.

Dismissed as old ‘has-beens’ not in touch with today’s reality, to be ignored. But 10 years of consistency must now be seriously considered because the CAA, much to the chagrin of the critics, has been proven right and the naysayers wrong.

The CAA has equal representation of Police and concerned citizens from a broad church and is a true microcosm of the broader population.

The CAA warned of a crime Tsunami and published a Plan to address the issues in 2017, in a document entitled ‘PLAN 100’. (see link below). This document has had four iterations, but the principles of the original remain unresolved or even unacknowledged by Victoria Police or the Government.

From cause to solution, the CAA has published a plethora of articles exceeding 500, addressing aspects of the issues. We have now achieved an average monthly readership of over 20,000, that’s over 100,000 per year.

A lot of interested/concerned Victorians by any matrix.

Below are extracts from published articles that led to the first Plan we submitted to VicPol and the then Government to address these issues.

Plan 100 in 2017 demonstrated we were across the issues then, as we are today and until the Government and the Victoria Police start to seriously address what we have raised, in another 10 years the community will still be wondering what happened to one of Australia’s premier Police Forces and the crime rate and general lawlessness of the current crime Tsunamis will make living in this State intolerable both from a cultural and practical perspective.

Some of the articles that spawned PLAN 100..

 The policing experiment that caused a crime wave

“Victoria is labouring through a policing experiment where tasking, or management by statistics, is being marketed as “Modern Policing,” but instead of reducing crime, it has dramatically increased it.

Worryingly, there is no guarantee that the ‘Modernising Policing’ tasking experiment will ever work, and, if it doesn’t, then what?

When we find in five years 3,000 extra police are not enough, do we recruit 6,000 to be sure?”

Published  December 2016

https://caainc.org.au/the-policing-experiment-that-caused-a-crime-wave/

Act Now or Crime Will Spiral Out of Control in Victoria

“Chairman of the Community Advocacy Alliance and former Chief Commissioner, Kel Glare, said the plan would address rampant violent crime, aggravated burglaries and robberies by youth, car thefts, assaults and the lack of respect for Police and the law in Victoria.

Put simply, if we all don’t act now, crime in this state will continue to spiral out of control, and everyone will be less safe. The reputation of Victoria as a safe state will be trashed.

My colleagues and I didn’t give years of service to policing in this state to see that happen.”

Published  April 2017

https://caainc.org.au/act-now-or-crime-will-spiral-out-of-control-in-victoria/

Victoria in serious trouble still

“The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) again warned of the current Crime Tsunami nearly two years ago, and unfortunately, our predictions were accurate.

The CAA further warned that the Pursuit Policies of VicPol would lead to serious consequences, and unfortunately, that prediction was also accurate. The Bourke Street massacre highlighted the folly of current police policies.

We now predict that unless there are major changes to the police philosophy, the Judicial and Penal systems, the Crime rate will not flatten as Community and Police Leaders would try to have you believe, but escalate to unbelievable levels.

As Police and Community leaders search for the slightest positive in the latest crime figures, the reality is, no matter how you cut it or slice it, we are spiralling towards anarchy.”

Published 2017

https://caainc.org.au/686-2/?doing_wp_cron=1777849326.8314599990844726562500

72,000 lost shifts – Police victim blaming

The latest police sick leave figures (HS 30/9/17) are unbelievable and equate to nearly 350 shifts lost per week.

With these sorts of numbers, you would have thought the penny might drop with the Government that VicPol has structural problems and should address those before victim-blaming.

The problem predominantly is the organisation, not the police members.

Teaching senior staff how to help staff is a bit off. Apart from the obvious question of how they became senior staff without this basic management skill, suggests that VicPol wants to dodge the real cause: structural problems.

The Government’s only answer is to recruit more police. When will real action be taken when the lost shifts achieve 100,000?”

 Published 2018

https://caainc.org.au/72000-lost-shifts-police-victim-blaming/?

 PLAN 100…..

 The Plan addressed in particular the three major issues where failure is rife: within VicPol,  effectiveness, efficiency, and morale.

These are but three of the pillars of the organisation, and no meaningful effort to at least acknowledge the problem exists, or to address the problems, all that happens is they open another pack of ‘band-aids’ when the pressure is placed on the organisation.

Improving the organisation is also apparently not within the purview of the Police Association (TPAV), who rejected attempts by the CAA to even discuss these issues, albeit that apart from the benefit to the community, the largest group to benefit from the CAA plans are the Police members themselves, a concept that does not appear to light a fire under the Police Association.

This State is facing a November election, and it is the only chance we will have in four years to install a government that will take Policing and Law and Order seriously and do something positive about it.

We have previously acknowledged that Chief Commissioner Mike Bush has a herculean task in making Victoria Police an effective organisation again.

 An Independent Law and Order Standing Commission must be established with bipartisan support to oversee all matters concerning Law and Order and Good Governance within Government, and particularly the Criminal Justice system.

Getting an effective and efficient Criminal Justice system that punishes wrongdoers might just give the Victoria Police under Mike Bush the chance to reform.

Although Plan 100 was written ten years ago, it is as relevant today as it was then, and if you are concerned about the way Law and Order is not progressing, in this lawless state, make your views heard by your local member.

You can review Plan 100 by following the link. https://caainc.org.au/plan-100/

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