MULTIPLE victims of crime and interested community members attended last Thursday’s Eastern Region Bass Coast Police Service Area (PSA) Neighbourhood Policing Forum.
Voicing questions around post-reporting communication and crime prevention, attendees emphasised their desire for a 24-hour manned police station on Phillip Island.
Officers acknowledged the public’s concerns, noting that a rotating roster does see Cowes Police Station officers working nights, but highlighted that having a police station manned 24/7 requires a significant amount of resources and results in fewer police officers being available for patrols.
Superintendent Tracie McDonald also acknowledged the long-standing concern regarding one-way access to and from the island, asking members of the public to submit their initiatives and ideas to a dedicated email address, which officers can then escalate through the Victoria Police chain of command.
There were very few surprises in the statistics presented by the members of Victoria Police.
A spike in youth crime in recent years has seen more children (10 to 17 years of age) commit crimes compared to their youth counterparts (18 to 24 years of age), reversing the trend prior to 2022.
Recent changes to bail laws also mean that several local youth offenders are currently on remand awaiting their court cases.
Proactive Policing Unit Leading Senior Constable Nick Carlson spoke of the current programs and organisations working together within the Bass Coast PSA to reduce and prevent youth crime.
“We don’t have a textbook that says you do it this way,” Leading Senior Constable Carlson stated.
“A lot of the time, we are inventing things on the run – finding programs, finding support and finding community needs.
“Bass Coast and South Gippsland tend to lack support for youth. Go over to the Valley, go to Dandenong and the southeastern suburbs… there are a lot more services, we don’t have those supports.”
Leading Senior Constable Carlson also spoke of MST (multi-systemic therapy), which is having great success overseas and works with both parents and youth, and has recently been introduced locally.
Both Superintendent McDonald and Leading Senior Constable Carlson spoke of disparaging remarks on social media, who question police resources being allocated to sessions like the policing forum and Coffee with a Cop, noting that such community sessions are valuable opportunities to gather concerns and intelligence from the community.
Cross-border offending was another popular topic, with police highlighting that while years ago offenders usually committed crimes in their own areas, young offenders can now be recruited by peers across Melbourne, steal cars elsewhere and move quickly between regions.
With questions taken at the end of each topic, one member of the public congratulated local police on their holistic approach to problems.
“Given that you have limited resources, it’s so refreshing to hear that you take a holistic, multi-approach to a specific problem,” a member of the public stated.
“We can never really expect 100 per cent compliance, we can’t stop offending altogether, but we can try to understand why [particular groups] are overrepresented. If it has to do with disadvantage, or care, attendance at school, other kinds of social skills, and then as a society we have to make sure that particular group isn’t more affected than any other,” Superintendent McDonald replied.
Drug offences were discussed, with cannabis taking the top spot locally, followed by methylamphetamine and 1,4-Butanediol, which, at this stage, is still named as ‘not recorded’ in statistics, and has only recently been recognised as a drug.
“We really try and concentrate our investigative efforts on the drugs that cause the greatest community harm – ice, heroin… They change people’s behaviours, they make them violent, unpredictable, and sometimes make them very dangerous.
“We know [drug crime] feeds into other offending.”
Police reminded the public to secure their belongings and remain vigilant, highlighting that much of the crime is opportunistic, with theft and drug offences increasing during popular holiday periods.
“It’s very rare that we have confrontations [in aggravated burglaries]. Crooks want to get in, and they want to get out. It’s very rare that we’re finding crooks will go into someone’s bedroom because they don’t want that confrontation, and they are learning and evolving. They’re learning that if confrontation occurs, that’s when there will be consequences, and they’re likely to get caught,” Acting Inspector Simon Ross explained.
Victims of crime in the audience were disappointed they hadn’t been contacted by police following their incidents and initial reports.
Acting Inspector Ross acknowledged it as an area needing improvement but explained that only personal crimes - not property crimes - require police to update victims on outcomes.
He also acknowledged that as much as they would like to contact victims with information of their job, they’re not equipped to do so.
It’s worth noting that police at the forum did arrange for victims in the audience who wanted an update to receive one.
“We do have a good solve rates [in rural areas],” Superintendent McDonald confirmed.
