Tens of thousands of police hours will be diverted to the frontline each year under a comprehensive package of reforms unveiled by Chief Commissioner Mike Bush today.
A proposed restructure of the organisation is at the core of the plans that will free up police from administrative burden and give them more time on the streets where they can stop offending before it happens.
The proposals represent the most significant structural changes in years and lay the foundations for a transformation in how Victoria Police operates, with a total focus on reducing crime and improving the safety of all Victorians.
At the heart of the proposed new structure is a slimmed-down executive team, the backline of Victoria Police, that will enable a reinvestment in the frontline.
There is a reduction in the number of centralised Commands and Departments and an elevated focus on crime prevention and partnerships.
These proposed changes are a first step only. A second phase of the review will commence early next year, and will propose further, deep and tangible changes to the ways in which Victoria Police operates.
The restructure of Victoria Police is a centrepiece in a broader program of works unveiled by Chief Commissioner Bush today. The Victoria Police Uplift Program will drive changes to how Victoria Police operates. It will focus on five critical themes: Leadership, Bureaucracy, Technology, Organisational Design, and Recruitment, Retention and Return.
Led by some of Victoria Police's most experienced senior officers, each of these programs will deliver critical reforms that will 'build the backroom' - unshackling our members from administrative burden and giving them the support they need.
Among the many initiatives they will be working on are:
- A new State Crime Coordination Centre. Within the first half of next year this will be launched - a high-tech hub, that will bring together information, intelligence, and operational capability under one roof. Using advanced data and technology, the centre will identify links between crimes, uncover patterns, and provide real time insights to frontline police. From the centre, resources will be deployed in real time, 24/7, to respond to incidents, disrupt criminal networks and prevent crime before it occurs.
- A trial that will release sworn officers from police station reception counter duties and see them replaced by alternate staff. This will launch in the next 3 - 6 months and if the trial is a success, we will waste no time in implementing the initiative statewide.
- A new initiative which will see dedicated teams of admin staff, including former police officers, established within police stations to free members up from their paperwork after making an arrest. Currently police are spending too much time in the office tied up in paperwork when they should be back on the streets. Again, if these Investigation Support Units are a success, then we will roll them out across the state as quickly as possible.
Quotes attributable to Chief Commissioner Mike Bush
"We have a crime problem here in Victoria. There is no escaping this fact. The levels of offending we are seeing in our community are entirely unacceptable.
"Good people, innocent people going about their everyday lives, are being victimised, on the streets and in their own homes. This cannot continue.
"Getting ahead of this crime problem requires consequences for those offenders who drive fear in our communities combined with ongoing swift arrests and proactive operations.
"But it will also require a fundamental shift in how Victoria Police operates. We need to change how we police, so that we can get ahead of the criminals and stop the offending before it happens.
"Prevention and deterrence, these are the hallmarks of our strategy moving forwards as we seek to drive our crime rate down.
"Victoria Police is an exceptional organisation. We have almost 22,000 police, PSOs and VPS staff who turn up every day to keep the Victorian public safe. But it is clear to me that we have not been giving our frontline members the support they need.
"While specialist services within Victoria Police have benefitted from considerable investment - and necessarily so - our general duties officers, the backbone of our organisation, have not received the same levels of focus or investment.
"They are loaded past their capacity, burdened by bureaucracy and systems that don't talk to each other. Our structures do not support them as effectively as is needed and nor do our back-of-house functions, technology or processes.
"If we are to prevent crime, then it starts with properly resourcing and enabling our frontline police officers.
"Right now, police spend more than 4,000 hours per day - or 1.4 million hours per year - staffing reception counters in police stations. This is poor use of their invaluable skills and it's not what they want to be doing.
"We must get more police - your police - out of their stations and onto the streets where they can respond to and deter crimes.
"What is important to me, is that our members on the frontline know that help is coming - and it is coming soon.
"The structural changes we are making, and the new initiatives I have detailed, are a significant departure from how Victoria Police has gone about its business in recent years.
"We are doing this because it is clear - we can't keep doing things the same way and expecting different results.
"These changes will put us in the best possible position to achieve our goals - reducing crime, building trust and confidence, and making sure everyone is safe and feels safe."
