By Casey Neill
Greater Dandenong’s top cop has welcomed news that 46 new police officers are heading his way.
On Monday 5 March, Victoria Police announced where 825 additional officers would be deployed across Victoria over the 12 months from May.
There are 32 headed to the Dandenong division, including four for crime scene services, six for the CIU, 12 for highway patrol, four for the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Unit (SOCIT) and six for the Cardinia police service area (PSA).
Dandenong will also receive 14 officers for family violence specialist roles.
“We’ve been looking forward and waiting with bated breath for the release of more resources,” Insp Langhorn said.
“We’ve already had 50 come out in the first part of this year.”
He said the newly-announced additional police would “see our strength increase across the division”.
“The first lot went into general duties, front line, which was much-needed,” he said.
“This release is for specialist areas.
“They’ll be supporting detectives to enhance our response to criminal investigation.”
He said they’d also work on family violence prevention and response.
“We’re looking forward to those resources arriving and I’m sure the communities across Casey, Cardinia and Greater Dandenong will benefit from them,” he said.
Insp Langhorn said the boost was on the back of crime statistics showing a downward trend in crime in the Greater Dandenong PSA.
“These resources will really help solidify that direction we’re going,” he said.
“We’re making the community safer.”
These are the first of 2729 new officers the State Government announced in December 2016.
They’re in training at the academy and will be progressively rolled out to stations and specialist areas from May.
It is the second time Victoria Police has used its staff allocation model (SAM), which was developed in 2016 to ensure that additional police were being deployed to the areas of highest need.
SAM takes into account calls for assistance, reported crime, event management and traffic incidents, and the time required to provide these services.
