Wyndham’s top cop has hailed the announcement of 32 new police officers and detectives for the area.
The state government revealed last week its budget for 2016-17 would include 300 new frontline police for Victoria.
Wyndham will be allocated 27 of the new officers and five detectives will be deployed to the Wyndham Criminal Unit, which is based at the Werribee police station.
Wyndham Inspector Marty Allison said the announcement was “exciting news”. He said the officers would start across next year.
“We’ll see the first few of our 27 in the next, say, two to three weeks,” he said. “We’ve already started planning for this.”
Inspector Allison said the additional officers would allow more to be on duty during times when there could be increased demand for assistance in Wyndham, such as afternoon, night and weekend shifts.
In addition to the 32 new officers and detectives for Wyndham, an additional five detectives have been allocated to the Westgate Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.
The unit covers Wyndham, Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong.
He said that in November, the state government’s Community Safety Statement had revealed there would be more than 2700 new police starting in Victoria in the next five years.
“We are hopeful that some of these will also be allocated to Wyndham,” he said.
When the state government announced the new police last week, Werribee MP Tim Pallas said having more officers on the beat would have “a real impact” on preventing and detecting crime in the west.
The Police Association also praised the government for its commitment to boost police numbers.
Last year, the association released figures that showed Wyndham had 45 police for every 100,000 residents, compared with a state average of 102 officers for every 100,000 residents.
Wyndham council welcomed the announcement that more police would be on the beat across the municipality.
Safer communities portfolio holder Kim McAliney said: “Our local police are incredibly hard-working and professional, but are under enormous pressure with the continued growth of our population. By having more police on the beat, the visibility, effectiveness and response times of police can be improved.”
