ONE-PERSON police stations across the Mallee are under threat, according to Member for Mildura Jade Benham.
Ms Benham this week said the government was aiming to phase out one-person police stations across the state.
She said that this would take yet another essential service away from small towns.
“These small country towns often are too far away from any major centres for a response within a reasonable time,” she said.
“The loss of single-officer stations equates to further pressure on incident response times.”
The Mildura electorate has 12 one-person stations, including in Murrayville, Underbool, Werrimull, Manangatang, Birchip, Sea Lake, Wycheproof and Speed.
Ms Benham said the Nationals “fiercely opposed” the diminishing of police resources in rural areas.
“We need more cops not less,” she said.
“Police in small towns are more than just the local officer, but an integral part of the community, and have to balance the fine line of enforcing the law and being mates with locals.”
A Victorian Government spokesperson did not deny or confirm the claims but told Sunraysia Daily that the decision around the allocation and deployment of police offers and PSOs was a matter for the Chief Commissioner of Police.
They said the government had delivered the biggest increase in police numbers in the state’s history, with more than 3600 new police funded since 2016.
“We’ve also invested in new technology and better systems, giving police the intelligence and information they need to respond faster,” the spokesperson said.
“Policing is a challenging, rewarding career, and it could be for more people than they may have thought.
“We’ve funded Victoria Police to help them run an extensive recruitment campaign to invite more people to consider a job in policing.
“Victoria Police have also been running career expos, reaching out to previous applicants and streamlining the recruitment process.”
– Sarah Buchecker
