Source : Perth Now news
Victoria will try to pull 200 retired cops back into uniform to plug some 1500 vacancies in the state’s police force.
New Premier Ben Carroll on Sunday announced another 200 reservist police roles would be funded for former officers to be on hand at police station front counters and to do backroom administration.
The $57m commitment aims to put another 200 former police officers back on rotation, on top of another 200 spots already budgeted for by former premier Jacinta Allan.
“Victorians have told us they still want to see someone at the counter when they walk into their local station, and I’m listening,” Mr Carroll said.
“That’s why these new reservists will go straight to counters chosen by Victoria Police’s intelligence.”
The government says the 200 reservist positions will mean 16,000 hours of police work each week can return to the frontline; some 2000 shifts.
The police department has already enacted the first wave of recruiting these reservists. A second round of 50 reservists are being deployed to stations in the coming weeks, which will take the number of stations with the staff up to 41.
The government now has funding for 400 full-time equivalent reservist positions, and Mr Carroll says more than 550 applications have been submitted. But many of these 400 jobs are part-time hours.
The returning officers are being offered a pro rata $86,188 salary and nine weeks of paid leave.
Some 1500 uniformed vacancies persist across Victoria Police, at a time when crime has risen 26 per cent in the past three years.
The latest official figures show youth crime fell 6 per cent in the year to March, while adult crime rose 10 per cent. The number of youth offenders fell by 260 to about 7000, and there were 1000 fewer first-time youth offenders across the 12 months to March.
In March, the state government dropped the police entrance exam for Victorian Public Service employees on high pay grades wanting to move into the force. Public servants still need to do the fitness, mental and psychological assessments.
In his first crime-focused move as Premier, this week Mr Carroll announced plans to increase the number of Protective Service Officers by 150, and give those staff wider patrol powers.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said on Sunday the reservists would mostly do front counter and admin roles, such as helping prepare court briefs and assessing initial avenues of inquiry when a crime was reported.
“Reservists put police where they need to be – out in their communities preventing and detecting crime,” he said.
“Already we’ve seen some incredible people return to our organisation and this increase in reservists will ensure even more talent and experience comes back to the force.”
