Two former senior police members have called for action to address what they call a “crime tsunami” facing the state, in a document released by the Community Advocacy Alliance yesterday.
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The wide-ranging report, dubbed “Plan 100” and prepared by former chief commissioner Kelvin Glare and former inspector Ivan Ray, styles itself as a path to the “fastest and best way to reverse current crime trends which have evolved over nearly twenty years”.
“We accept that trends can be fickle but a consistently rising crime rate in Victoria has evolved that has not been seen in other states,” the report reads.
“To reverse this trend there does not seem to be a plan, feasible or not, just a few isolated incidental adjustments. It needs somebody to stand up and take responsibility.
“The community is demanding change of a systemic and profound nature immediately. The demands are becoming more strident and show no sign of diminishing but the reverse.”
They spent two or three days with the local police and that breaks down numerous barriers with their local police and that has immeasurable influence on that child’s development.
- Ivan Ray
In the report Mr Glare and Mr Ray, who is also the founder of the police Blue Light initiative in Victoria, call for dedicated “youth commissioners” to be deployed to the regions, with responsibility for the overall management of youths who commit crime and the authority to direct actions of other government departments or agencies operating in the youth field.
In particular, the former police officers recommend the expansion of a blue light camp program in Maldon.
“Building on the highly successful Blue Light camp at Maldon, explore the feasibility of extending the concept to work towards establishing additional camps throughout Victoria which is critical to building on the work of both Blue Light, Police in Schools and other police youth programs as they can all be interrelated,” it reads.
Speaking to the Bendigo Advertiser yesterday, Mr Ray said the youth commissioners would be “somebody with the authority to be able to be pragmatic and say ‘Right, this child needs X, Y or Z’,”.
“So for example, in Bendigo, they would direct DHS to do certain things and VicPol to do certain things and look after specific young people and use all the resources available,” he said.
Mr Ray said when Victoria Police had an officer deployed to the Maldon Blue Light camp, it helped “get the kids to understand the role of policing and law and order”.
“They spent two or three days with the local police and that breaks down numerous barriers with their local police and that has immeasurable influence on that child’s development,” he said.
“It’s sad that VicPol have removed the member that was stationed there away and it’s done by Blue Light staff now not by police.”
Likewise, Mr Ray said engagement with the adult population was key to crime prevention and suggested more police stations might even be required to achieve results in Bendigo.
“They really need a couple of smaller ones so the can actually increase their contact with the community,” he said.
“The police have got to be part of the community and the community part of policing and that’s how you get the solution to crime. When the bulk of the community is comfortable that their police station is there they feel comfortable in themselves.”
Other recommendations in the report include:
- Setting benchmarks for response times: “An urgent need exists to establish benchmarks for standard response times to jobs allocated by a priority hierarchy. Dispatch times need to be measured against call received times and the time the allocated resource arrived at the call (code 1) – not just the time the call was dispatched because there is then no way of determining whether or how long the resource took to attend the job. Allocating tasks to an individual member will allow management to monitor the response difficulties more accurately,” it reads.
- Undertaking a commission of review: “Establishing a commission of review of policing in this state and other issues that the commission identifies should be implemented which could include judicial practices, corrections procedures or principles and activities of other government departments as they relate to the law and order issue.”
- Increased use of emerging technologies: “Immediately issue all police members with an appropriate mobile phone with the normal smart phone capabilities and the ability for audio, video and still photography to be automatically encrypted and uploaded to a centralised safe repository where the material can be secured and retained for future reference.”
- Reintroducing ‘one up’ patrols: “Investigate the feasibility of one up response units for stations equipped with additional vehicles to allow for members of a shift section to each have a vehicle to respond to routine calls for assistance under the direction of a supervisor. This will allow for a substantial increase in the flexibility of resources to deal with operational demands. Not to be interpreted as reducing police numbers as the proposal is numbers neutral but each member has a vehicle. The impact of two members arriving at an incident is magnified if there are two police cars.”
