More police on attack over shift from Corio

Erin Pearson
MORE Corio police have come forward to vent frustration over a forced move into Geelong.
A long-serving officer, who wanted to remain anonymous, backed concerns among detectives reported in last week’s Independent that the shift would hamper crime-fighting in the Corio area.
“Corio station is one of the best stations I’ve ever worked at,” the officer said.
“It breaks my heart to see a bloody good station get ruined because Corio was getting the job done.”
Command started transferring Corio detectives to the Geelong station on Monday.
The Corio officer said he believed the “removal” of retired police from station desks had put pressure on serving members to handle more work.
“Operational police persons were used to greet people at station counters and take reports, which freed up fully operational members,” he said.
“But the changes made by State Government have fazed these people out and now the Government expects uniform officers to do more work.
“This has resulted in Geelong needing more CIU officers, which it has taken from Corio.”
The officer said command had slowly been taken officers from the Corio station over the last 10 years.
“The traffic operations unit has already disappeared from Corio and now the CIU. We must stop taking local knowledge out of the area.
“This move is an absolute crock.”
Geelong police CIU Senior Sergeant Rod Lloyd said he had yet to hear any complaints about the “merger”.
“I think there’s been a positive reaction and there’s certainly been no decrease in service,” he said.
“Attending crimes has proceeded as normally and I don’t see there’s has been any negatives but we’re still very much in formative stage – it’s just a matter of acclimatising.
“People are often reluctant or resistant to change but once it occurs they soon realise it’s not as bad as they thought it would be.
“It’s not going to change. It’s a matter of moving forward and making the emphasis on preventing and detecting crime.
“People can complain but that’s the way it is.”
Snr Sgt Lloyd said the move would allow a “greater concentration of detectives” at the Geelong station to share their knowledge of criminal suspects and crimes.)