Regional crime 'pressure points' in sights

Ms Neville said the new model would give police greater control over resourcing and deployment to help address the “genuine fear” residents felt in some parts of the state.

“We do have significant pressure points in some of our regional communities, and that’s why this new Victorian-first Staff Allocation Model for police is so critical,” she said.

“It’s about making sure that right across the state, each and every police station and each and every community has the police resources they need to meet local crime issues, and reduce harm.

“We know that there is genuine fear in some communities, and we want to turn this around.”

Ms Neville said the resourcing model would help address issues, including the drug ice and family violence, that remained a scourge in regional towns and cities.

“We know in our regional communities in particular, ice and family violence remain some of our biggest challenges,” she said.

“The new model for resourcing will look at each Victorian community, including Bendigo, and determine what, if any, additional police are needed.”

Ms Neville’s comments came as the state government yesterday announced a suite of reforms designed to crack down on youth offending, including an increase in the maximum period of detention that can be imposed by the children’s court and creating a new offence of “procuring young people to commit offences”.

The new offence would target adults who lure young people to commit crimes for them and will carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, regardless of the crime committed by the youth.

“We know we have issues with a small but dangerous group of young offenders causing great harm in our community, and existing interventions aren't working – that’s why we need these reforms to turn this behaviour around,” Ms Neville said.