Protective services officers (PSOs) will start patrolling Wyndham’s new V/Line stations at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale from next week.
The PSOs will patrol train platforms, carparks and station surrounds from 6pm until after the last train every night.
The Wyndham stations are among six that will start getting PSOs next week; Keilor Plains, Victoria Park, Murrumbeena and Auburn stations are the others.
The new security means all Wyndham’s stations will have a police presence after dark. Werribee and Hoppers Crossing were among the first stations to get PSOs in 2012, while Williams Landing received them in April 2013.
The rollout coincides with a Victorian Auditor-General’s report into public safety on Victoria’s trains which found that while PSOs boosted perceptions of safety on Melbourne’s train network at night, it was unable – due to the way Victoria Police collects data – to determine if their presence had had an impact on crime.
PSO success not measured
“The full value of the PSO program is yet to be realised,” the report states.
“Victoria Police’s systems and processes for recording crime at train stations do not require police members to record the name of the station where a crime was committed. Consequently, 13 per cent of the offences recorded at stations since 2010 were not attributable to a particular station.
“This means it is not possible to accurately assess the impact of PSOs, as it’s not possible to compare the crime rates at a particular station before and after PSO deployment.”
