By Luke Voogt
The “revolving door” Victorian legal system is letting down local officers a Geelong Police Station insider has said following a recent crime surge.
Mick Robinson, who has worked behind the counter as a JP at Geelong Police Station since 2006, said lenient sentencing was letting criminals off.
“The amount of people you see coming in each day to write in the book – oh my goodness!
“You look at their list of crimes and you think how do they let them back out on the street again?”
Mr Robinson was shocked to read last Friday that overall crime had increased in Geelong by 20 per cent in the past financial year.
“When you have people talking about setting up squads to police the streets themselves, we have a very bad problem, don’t we,” he said.
Mr Robinson said he had the greatest respect for police but said the legal system did not support them.
“I can’t speak for the police but this must just break their hearts. From where I’ve been sitting I’ve seen them do everything right.”
Mr Robinson said repeat criminals – especially youth – were increasingly defying police.
“Anyone under 16 the police will take them on, nothing will happen, they will keep repeating and go on to become hardened criminals.”
Mr Robinson recalled seeing a group of young men in his street in Newcomb, whose supervisor said were meant to be working on a community-based order.
He said the supervisor told him he had no power to make the group work.
Too often soft punishments meant criminals had little fear of breaking the law, he said.
“The system supports the crooks, not the police.”
Geelong Superintendent Craig Gillard would not comment on the judicial system, saying it was a matter for community discussion not the police.
However he conceded Geelong had seen a significant rise in crime in the past financial year.
“We’ve got a lot of work as a community to do,” he said.
Supt Gillard said police had made significant gains since 30 June, the end recording date for Crime Statistics Agency’s most recent crime data.
He said Geelong Police Station had focussed on burglary and theft, which recorded 37 per cent increases in the last financial year.
The station established a new high volume crime team after receiving 17 new custody officers in the past few months, Supt Gillard said.
The custody officers were making a huge difference by freeing up uniform police and detectives, he said.
“They are incredibly active in doing their job.”
However Supt Gillard stressed the community also could help.
For example, he said, 51 per cent of local car thefts had occurred because of people leaving doors unlocked.
“It’s not victim blaming – it’s making people far less likely to be victims.”
Supt Gillard welcomed Police Minister Lisa Neville’s announcement of 15 police for Geelong and the Bellarine earlier this year.
“Give us more police and we’ll detect more crimes and arrest more people,” he said.
However Supt Gillard said he had not received formal advice on when Geelong would receive new officers.
