We’re happy with police – report claims

ERIN PEARSON and LAURA WAKELY
GEELONG and Surf Coast police have received record high public satisfaction and safety reviews revealed in statistics provided to the Independent.
The results, outlining community confidence in police and perceptions of safety on public transport for the September quarter, saw Geelong rank above neighbouring areas.
Geelong’s general satisfaction result was 72.5 per cent, confidence in police 79.8 per cent and perception of safety on public transport during the day 88.2 per cent.
The Surf Coast received a 78.5 per cent general satisfaction result, confidence in police 89.3 per cent and perceptions of safety in the neighbourhood 97.5 per cent.
Geelong Superintendent Paul Pottage said police were pleased with the results after a challenging 2011 which saw a spike in burglaries and thefts from cars.
“Leadership and political issues that affect police can affect perceptions of police locally but our results are steadily getting better which we are extremely happy about,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of work with public order issues recently and anyone who’s visited the Geelong CDB on weekends of late would have seen improvements in behaviour.
“The public need to see the police out being proactive also and we plan on more operations to combat bad behaviour.”
Supt Pottage said the Geelong and Surf Coast units had dedicated a lot of time to dealing with badly behaving schoolies to reduce “needless” offences.
He said the force was committed to ensuring the community felt safe and confident in the police’s ability to combat crime.
Geelong Safety Committee chair John Frame said for a long time the committee’s monthly meetings focused only on safety issues in central Geelong, but a change in behaviour meant they were now tackling issues such as domestic violence.
Mr Frame, a former assistant police commissioner, said he was pleased to see perceptions heading in the right direction.
“There are still negative accounts happening but overall we’re seeing offending dropping away,” he said.
“The Monday morning headlines of gutters full of blood have disappeared and that will also help people’s perceptions.”