By Luke Voogt
An extra 28 police will hit the streets of Geelong as part of 12-month rollout of 825 new officers, the State Government has announced.
Police Minister Lisa Neville announced the allocation alongside Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton on Monday.
“The safety of our local community is key and we’ve listened to police to give them everything they need – the resources, the technology and the powers – to keep the community safe,” she said.
The Geelong allocation included eight sworn police in specialist family violence roles, which Ms Neville said would free up other officers.
Police attend a family violence incident every seven minutes in Victoria, according to police statistics.
The deployment will begin in May, with the State Government expecting the last of the 825 officers to be working by April 2019.
The State Government has promised to fund 3135 extra officers over four years, describing the pledge as biggest recruitment effort in Victoria Police’s 165-year history.
Member for Western Victoria Simon Ramsay described the new police as “overdue” given the “explosion in crime in the region”.
“The allocation is still not enough and should have been closer to 40 more, on top of the 10 allocated last year,” the Liberal MP said.
“The latest police allocation is already not keeping pace with the population growth in the Geelong (and the) Bellarine (Peninsula).”
Mr Ramsay called for stricter sentencing, a measure backed by shadow police minister Ed O’Donohue.
“It’s not enough just to deploy more police when Daniel Andrews fails to back them with the laws to keep violent offenders locked away,” Mr O’Donohue said.
“That is why a Liberal Nationals government led by Matthew Guy would introduce the toughest mandatory sentencing and bail laws in Australia.”
South Barwon MP Andrew Katos said the Surf Coast would receive none of the new police officers from the allocation.
“The Torquay police station was designed to have 24-hour counter services but Daniel Andrews has failed to adequately provide enough police officers for the area.”
The government allocated 10 extra police to Geelong in 2017.
Geelong recorded a five per cent drop in overall crime that year, the first decrease in a decade.
