Police stretched beyond limits

SOUTH Eastern Metropolitan MP Gordon Rich-Phillips said he was horrified at the lack of police in the City of Casey.
“Casey residents are not getting the police response they deserve and require,” Mr Rich-Phillips said after hearing that police could not respond to a recent knife fight at a Narre Warren bus stop. “They are stretched for police resources in the area,” he said. “This situation is getting beyond control; the Brumby Government is starving Victoria Police of the resources it needs to provide adequate policing and Casey residents are paying the price.”
Mr Rich-Phillips said the shortage of police fell back on the State Government.
“We were promised an extra 1000 police officers state wide,” he said. “The Government says they have delivered but where are these police officers? They are not in the South-East.”
Police numbers across the state are critically low, according to The Police Association Victoria.
Police Association secretary Senior Sergeant Greg Davies said the association had been saying for some time now that the safety of the people of Casey was being compromised because of a chronic shortage of frontline police in the municipality.
“Our hard-working police members in Casey know it and so do its citizens,” he said.
Sen Sgt Davies said independent research conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research revealed that Casey was currently 126 frontline police short of where it should be.
“Without these extra police, effective proactive police patrols will continue to be compromised and our hard-working members at Casey who do a fantastic job under difficult conditions will continue to be stretched,” he said.
The Endeavour Hills police station recently had to close its door for a couple of days because of what Mr Rich-Phillips said was a “dire staffing situation”.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan however said Mr Rich-Phillips, when in Government, promised more police for Casey and a police station for Endeavour Hills, both of which he failed to deliver.
“And both of which have since been achieved by the Labor Government,” Mr Donnellan said.