By Casey Neill
Police split over how to tackle crime…
Greater Dandenong’s police taskforce boom is either cutting crime or encouraging criminals – depending on who is asked.
The Police Association called for the specialised teams to be cut after the Crime Statistics Agency revealed a 19 per cent jump in crime in the police service area (PSA) in the year to 30 June.
“We’ve heard far too much spin about special taskforces,” assistant secretary Inspector Bruce McKenzie said.
“The crime stats emphatically show they’re not working.
“The time for indulgent experimentation and pet projects are over when it comes to police resources.”
But Southern Metro Region Superintendent Paul Hollowood said the Frontline Tactical Unit, Divisional Response Unit, Taskforce Regarder and Operation Cosmas were helping to drive down crime.
Police Minister Lisa Neville raved about the taskforces during a visit to the Dandenong Police Station on Wednesday 28 September, the day before the statistics were released.
She also said Dandenong would receive more officers fresh from the academy as soon as April.
Ms Neville said 20-plus police custody officers had freed up an extra 10 police a day to patrol the streets.
Insp Hollowood said these police were fed into Frontline Tactical Unit, which started operating from Dandenong in late August.
“The 30-member unit is responsible for targeting street crime, public order and community reassurance,” he said.
“At the same time the Divisional Response Unit commenced operation, bringing together specialist detectives to proactively target serious and organised crime offending in this area.
“It has come about from amalgamating a number of smaller tasking groups that we had operating into one larger group.
“We are confident that these new initiatives, aimed at putting more police into frontline operations, will bring about a reduction of crime.”
Ms Neville said the Frontline Tactical Unit officers “really expressed a love of their job and being in the unit because it’s been very much about making a difference”.
She said they had arrested nearly 60 people and charged them with more than 100 offences.
“I also talked to the people involved in the Cosmas youth offending side as well,” she said.
The unit investigates aggravated burglaries and carjackings and has made more than 180 arrests since May.
“They’ve had significant inroads,” Ms Neville said.
But Insp McKenzie said taskforces robbed police stations of the ability to provide a proper visible police presence, which was proven to prevent crime.
“There should be a substantial injection of police in Victoria and they should be on the frontline,” he said.
“It’s an indictment on the state of police numbers that we now have fewer patrol vans on each shift in Greater Dandenong than we did 20 years ago.”
See page 3 for more on Greater Dandenong’s crime stats results.
