By Luke Voogt
At least 100 new cops will arrive in Geelong during the next four years following a state-wide recruiting push, Police Minister Lisa Neville has promised.
“The Chief Commissioner has made it clear that Geelong is under pressure,” said Ms Neville, who is also the Bellarine MP.
“Geelong will get additional frontline police as determined by the new staff allocation model.”
A Government source this week confirmed Geelong would have 100 frontline officers and “probably more” from 3135 new Victorian police.
The source said the number took likely attrition figures into account.
The boost follows the Indy last month reporting a drop in Geelong police numbers during the past year despite a 20 per cent crime surge across the city.
Geelong lost one equivalent-full-time officer between September 2015 and 2016 despite the Andrews Government announcing an increase of 155 across the state.
The Government funded 17 extra police custody officers for Geelong during the same time.
Last week the Andrews Government announced an additional 2729 frontline officers over four years, also allowing for attrition.
“Combined with the 406 additional police fast-tracked from this year’s budget, we will have 3135 recruits in the pipeline over the next four years,” Ms Neville said.
The Police Minister declined to announce the exact number of police Geelong would receive.
“This will be a matter for Victoria Police,” she said.
But coalition MP Simon Ramsay said the boost would come too late.
“Victoria’s population has grown by over 200,000 people since Daniel Andrews took over,” said the Western Victoria MP.
“We’ve spent more than a year calling for additional police numbers that reflect this growth.”
Mr Ramsay said the boost was only part of the solution to “the crime wave hitting Geelong and the Bellarine”.
He repeated calls for harsher penalties for youth offenders.
On Tuesday morning the State Government announced it would introduce a number of new laws targeting youth offenders.
The laws would include strict curfews, supervision requirements and increased maximum sentencing in youth detention.
