A spokesperson for the state’s Police Minister and the shadow minister traded insults over policing in Wyndham last week after a spate of home invasions fuelled residents’ fears.
The Coalition’s shadow police spokesman Ed O’Donohue and Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn met last week with Point Cook residents to hear their concerns.
Mr O’Donohue said he believed the state government’s weakening of bail laws for underage offenders, coupled with a lack of police on the ground, was “emboldening young offenders”. He said he was open to exploring the idea of a new police station at Point Cook.
But Mr O’Donohue would not say what the Coalition would do differently if elected next year, saying he would prefer that the problem was solved before then.
Referring to comments by Police Minister Lisa Neville in Star Weekly earlier this month, in which she rejected the suggestion that rising crime in Wyndham was linked to fewer frontline police officers, Mr O’Donohue said the minister was “absolutely out of touch” and “ignoring the community’s desperate plea for support.”
A spokesperson for Ms Neville hit back last week, saying: “The shadow minister is in no position to talk about resources, given not a single extra police officer was funded during his time in government.”
In their meeting with Mr O’Donohue and Mr Finn, residents pointed to a recent rise in home burglaries happening when people were home, saying they now lived in fear.
One resident said she now slept with a knife under her mattress to protect her family, while another said the lack of police in the region meant offenders felt they could get away with crime.
Residents are campaigning for a new police station at Point Cook and an increase in frontline officers at Wyndham. The Police Association of Victoria says an extra 159 frontline officers are needed in Wyndham by 2019 to bring police numbers up to levels elsewhere in the state.
The spokesperson for Ms Neville said the recent state budget included funding for 300 new frontline police, adding that these officers would be deployed by the chief commissioner to areas of most need.
Star Weekly asked if the minister would be willing to visit Wyndham and hear from residents. “The government is always open to speaking to communities about crime issues in their area,” the spokesperson said.
