By CASEY NEILL
THE number of Greater Dandenong front-line police officers dropped by 21 between September and December last year, figures show.
But Victoria Police has said the Police Service Area’s (PSA) staffing levels are normal.
The Opposition’s police spokesman and Eastern Victoria Region MP Edward O’Donohue contacted the Journal last week after Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Ben Carroll visited Dandenong Police Station to meet new custody officers.
“Whatever benefit is derived from the custody officers will be offset by the loss of police,” he said.
“Daniel Andrews’s failure to appropriately resource police has caused a reduction of front-line officers.”
Mr O’Donohue provided quarterly Victoria Police statistics that showed the number of sworn full-time equivalent police in the Greater Dandenong PSA dropped from 175 to 154 between September and December last year.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force allocated resources at a divisional level, not a local level.
“Dandenong is part of Southern Metro Division 3 which also includes Cardinia and Casey,” she said.
“The number of positions in any area tends to fluctuate depending on movements and vacancies.
“Dandenong currently have their normal staffing levels.”
A spokesperson for Acting Police Minister Robin Scott said the State Government had not cut police numbers.
They said there were 13,302 sworn full-time equivalent police officers in December last year, up almost 150 from September.
Southern Metro has received an extra 50 officers since October 2014, the spokesperson said.
“This government supports police and Mr O’Donohue is scaremongering,” they said.
“Our custody officers will enable more police to be redeployed to the front line – this policy is already having an impact.
“We have funded almost 700 police personnel in our first year of government, including 400 custody officers, 109 PSOs, 62 transit police, 88 counterterrorism specialists and eight forensic analysts to help police crackdown on clandestine drug labs.”
