A western metropolitan region MP has called on the state government to “take real action” to reduce wait times at Werribee police station.
Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins, a member of the state legislative council, has called on the police minister to look into ways to lessen the amount of time that people spend queuing at the station before speaking to an officer.
Dr Carling-Jenkins said that one of her staff members attended the station last month to hand in some information.
“While waiting, she was alerted to the fact that people had been waiting for 90 minutes just to see an officer,” Dr Carling-Jenkins said.
“The front desk had been unattended for hours and the waiting room had grown to well over 20 people.
“After standing in line for 45 minutes, some people began to leave.
“They were frustrated at the time they had wasted.
“We’ve also had a number of constituents say they’ve had the same issue and walked out, who have said it’s not worth it to report their stolen phone or something like that, which just raises the question: What information are police in Wyndham missing out on?”
Dr Carling-Jenkins said that she wanted to make it clear that she was not blaming police for the problem.
“This is not a criticism of police – it is an administration problem and a resourcing problem,” she said.
Dr Carling-Jenkins said that as Wyndham was one of the fastest-growing local government areas in Victoria, the state government should take action on the issue.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said the state government had funded 3135 new police officers in four years.
She said 27 new frontline officers were already working in Wyndham and a further 12 would be on the beat by about the middle of next year.
“Our priority is to have more police out on the streets preventing and disrupting crime,” she said.
“As the additional police hit the streets, we would expect to see further improvements in the crime rate.”
