Victoria cops will spend much less time doing paperwork and extra time patrolling the streets in a bid to cut back crime and restore public confidence.
The chief commissioner, Mike Bush, introduced the most important restructure of the drive in a decade on Monday, which he mentioned was in response to the state’s “main crime downside” and “the dearth of belief and confidence” in police to deal with it.
“When it comes to these two very vital points, we have to police in a different way. We’d like a reset. We have to reorganise ourselves,” Bush advised reporters.
The restructure will reduce on centralised instructions and departments and cut back the “administrative burden” on frontline officers, in addition to reducing the variety of deputy commissioners from six to 4, with one devoted particularly to crime prevention.
“We don’t have sufficient police on the frontline to forestall and reply to requires service, as a result of the way in which we’ve organised ourselves has saved plenty of them both within the again room or again on the station finishing jobs that another person ought to do on their behalf,” Bush mentioned.
It comes after crime knowledge launched final month confirmed the state’s crime fee had risen 13.8% year-on-year in 2024-25, with theft the fastest-growing offence. On the time, Victoria police introduced a goal to cut back critical and violent crime by 5% every year.
A graph exhibiting Victoria’s crime fee over 10 years
Bush, who was sworn in about 4 months in the past after beforehand main the New Zealand police drive, mentioned he was notably “shocked” to study uniformed cops dealt with reception counter and call-taking duties at stations throughout the state.
If these officers have been redeployed to the frontline, he mentioned it will quantity to 1.4 million further personnel hours a yr.
Victoria police would now trial changing sworn officers at counters with “alternate employees” in addition to trialling new “investigation help models” of administration personnel, together with former officers, to deal with post-arrest paperwork. If profitable, these modifications would roll out statewide.
Bush mentioned there would even be a “give attention to retention and return to work”, noting of roughly 22,000 police, protecting service and public sector employees, about 700 have been on employees’ compensation, largely for psychological well being accidents.
“A part of that’s as a result of we’ve overburdened them with paperwork, duplicate programs – we’ve made their job robust,” he mentioned. “We actually need them again.”
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A brand new state crime coordination centre can be arrange within the first half of 2026 to carry collectively intelligence, knowledge and operational assets beneath one roof. It could function 24/7 utilizing expertise to determine linked crimes, uncover patterns and supply real-time insights to officers on the bottom.
One other evaluation would start early subsequent yr proposing additional structural modifications.
Bush mentioned it was “over 10 years” since police final had such a “vital restructure” however he mentioned he was assured it will result in a “rather more efficient service to cut back crime and hurt and improve public belief and confidence”.
Requested on Monday whether or not he supported necessary sentencing, Bush mentioned there should be “penalties” for critical offending.
“It’s vital for deterrence, to know what that appears like, and there must be consistency,” he mentioned. “In case you’re going to commit a critical crime, commit critical hurt towards different folks, it is advisable to know what’s going to occur to you.”
