By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE Endeavour Hills Police Station was closed early on Tuesday 19 January because officers were deployed to fire danger patrol.
The front counter closure – at 3pm instead of 11pm – was announced in a post on the Casey Eyewatch Facebook page on Tuesday, which cited “extreme temperatures”.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) predicted Melbourne’s temperature would reach a maximum 32 degrees on Tuesday, less hotter than the previous day.
“With extreme temperatures expected on 19 January, 2016, and increased demand on our officers, there are planned changes to counter services at Endeavour Hills and Carrum Downs Police Stations,” the statement read.
“Endeavour Hills will only provide reception counter service between 7am and 3pm.”
The Carrum Downs station was also expected to close early on Tuesday at 5pm.
But in response to questions from Star News, Acting Superintendent Donald Brown said station closures were determined by “fire danger rating, rather than temperature”.
“When a day is set to be classified as ‘severe’ or above, two members who would have usually staffed the watch-house at Endeavour Hills are re-deployed onto a divisional van to service the Casey area,” he said.
“As we see an increase in service demand on these ‘severe’ days, this allows us an additional patrol in the response zone to meet the demand.
“We can also use these members to staff Operation Firesetter activities, which is a high visibility bushfire arson prevention and detection operation focused on high-risk bushfire arson locations and times.”
Last month Star News reported how Police Minister Wade Noonan hit back at claims he was “passing the buck” when it came to the Endeavour Hills police station not being manned 24/7.
Casey councillor Rafal Kaplon again raised the issue after council resolved in April to write to Mr Noonan to investigate the feasibility of having the station manned 24-hours a day.
