Victoria will recruit another 200 police reservists to staff police station counters, with the government arguing the expansion will allow more serving officers to spend their shifts responding to crime and patrolling communities.
Premier Ben Carroll said the additional recruitment would double the planned reservist workforce to 400, after the first group began being deployed across Melbourne in July.
The government estimates 400 reservists could free frontline Victoria Police members to undertake an additional 86,000 shifts a year.
The expansion follows changes to opening hours at police stations across Victoria, which were introduced to move officers away from counter duties and into frontline policing. The changes have also prompted concerns in some communities about reduced access to their local stations.
Carroll said the government had heard those concerns.
“Victorians have told us they still want to see someone at the counter when they walk into their local station, and I’m listening,” he said.
“That’s why these new reservists will go straight to counters chosen by Victoria Police’s intelligence.”
Reservists have already been deployed at police stations in Altona, Caulfield, Cranbourne, Frankston, Glen Waverley, Knox, Moonee Ponds, Moorabbin, Oakleigh and Richmond.
About 50 reservists have been deployed since July, with squads of 25 being sworn in every fortnight. The government says hundreds of applications have been received for the program.
Applicants must have at least two years of previous policing experience and undertake a one-week training course before returning to duties. Reservists working at station counters are sworn police officers.
Police Minister Paul Edbrooke said using experienced former officers at counters was intended to release other police for operational duties.
“Reservists are already keeping stations open longer and every one of them on shift means more police on the beat,” Edbrooke said.
The government has not specified in the material released on Monday which additional stations will receive reservists or how their operating hours will change. Locations will be determined using Victoria Police intelligence.
The expansion comes alongside plans to recruit another 150 Protective Services Officers and extend the use of police and PSOs in shopping strips and shopping centres.
The government also used the announcement to attack the opposition over its spending plans ahead of the state election, claiming proposed budget reductions would affect policing.
The claim forms part of Labor’s political argument against Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and the Coalition, with the government characterising the opposition’s fiscal plans as involving $40 billion in cuts.
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