By Cam Lucadou-Wells
The council flag has been raised but…
Plans to close Endeavour Hills Police Station on weekend nights remain uncertain despite 20 extra trained police being re-allocated to the Casey region.
However the news has led Casey council to raise its flag which had flown at half-mast due to the soaring crime rate.
Casey’s police district inspector Don Brown confirmed the fully-trained officers would be re-allocated to frontline duties – such as watch-house and divisional van patrols – in Narre Warren, Cranbourne and Endeavour Hills from 14 November.
“They will not be tied up with any other taskforce or any other units.”
Inspector Brown said further recruits are expected in Casey in April as part of a state-wide rollout of an extra 300 officers and a new police resourcing model.
The boosted police numbers would target the numerous thefts of vehicles, thefts from vehicles and aggravated burglaries, he said.
“We will reduce the high-harm offending such as aggravated burglaries and robberies.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Insp Brown said he couldn’t answer whether the trialled closure of Endeavour Hills Police Station on weekend nights, which had already been deferred, would still go ahead.
“The closure hasn’t yet started and we don’t know how many police we’re getting (in April).”
Recent official crime statistics show nearly 50 burglaries, 40 assaults and 150 thefts a week in Casey.
The crime rate rose by 14.5 per cent on a per capita basis in the 12 months up to June 2016.
Police Association secretary Ron Iddles welcomed the re-allocation but the “only sustainable solution” was 189 recruits by 2022.
At a council meeting on 4 October, Casey Mayor Sam Aziz successfully reversed the half-mast flag protest.
He said the original motion was “outside the square” but necessary to highlight that “we were a city in distress”.
“We are now a city of appreciation that we’re getting the resources that police need to make our community safer.”
In a triumphant Facebook post, Cr Aziz wrote “Cop that! It worked!” to critical “armchair commentators who accused me of being political”.
Cr Aziz said he would continue to press for tougher sentencing, deportation of dual-national offenders and a state-federal joint taskforce to tackle youth gangs.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan said extra police had been funded as part of a $596 million public safety package in the May budget.
“Let’s be very clear – Cr Sam Aziz and the Casey council do not dictate the Government’s policies on policing matters, nor any other state matter.
“Perhaps councillors should’ve focused more on local government issues if they are concerned about their prospects of re-election.
“We face a number of complex law and order challenges – including the scourge of family violence, the need to crack down on gangs and gun crime – which is why this Government continues to give Victoria Police the people, technology and infrastructure they need to keep our community safe.”
Police Minister Lisa Neville said police made the resourcing decision as an acknowledgment of “growing pressures” in the Casey growth corridor.
Opposition police spokesman Edward O’Donohue said the “handful” of extra announced police was a “drop in the ocean of what is needed”.
“These few extra police won’t even cover the 30 plus police in Casey that have been taken from frontline duties to task forces in recent months.
“If Casey is to beat the crime tsunami that Daniel Andrews failed to prevent, a significant and sustained injection of extra police is desperately needed.”
