By CASEY NEILL
FUTURE cops cut their teeth at Dandenong Plaza last week, and made quite an impact.
Almost 30 probationary constables from the Victoria Police Academy spent five hours at the shopping centre on Thursday 17 October.
They conducted foot patrols, engaged with traders and shoppers and responded to incidents through project Operational Police Training in the Community (OPTIC).
Acting Inspector Jill Dyson said the academy had rolled out OPTIC in Sunshine, Box Hill, Ringwood and now Dandenong following a six-month pilot in Glen Waverley.
“They do the work and we watch them. It’s very much a hands-off approach,” she said.
“This may be the first time they are exposed to the public outside of their dedicated training workplace.
“This project allows them to further develop their communication skills while out on patrol, and also improves public perception of police.”
Act Insp Dyson said recruits used terms like exciting, realistic and great learning opportunity at a debrief on Friday morning.
And feedback from shoppers was just as glowing.
“They felt safer having the police presence,” she said.
“We’re told that it was probably one of the quietest Thursday afternoons in recent history.
“There are usually 100 people on the steps out the front in McCrae Street but they weren’t there.
“Our presence had a deterrent effect on some.”
Act Insp Dyson said shopkeepers appreciated the crews speaking with them about local issues.
They also provided safety tips and even dealt with a few crimes, “a vehicle that had false plates on it”, she said.
“They did a really good job trying to work out what was going on with that.”
Recruits also checked out the scenes of a few recent thefts, issued traffic tickets and took plates off an unregistered car.
Another group of probationary constables will do the rounds at the Plaza in the coming weeks.
