More sworn police at Dandenong Police Station will be freed up from custody duties so they can spend more time on the frontline targeting aggravated burglaries, family violence and recidivist offending.
Member for Dandenong, Gabrielle Williams, today welcomed the Andrews Labor Government’s legislation to establish a new supervising role for Police Custody Officers (PCOs) and grant additional powers to Protective Services Officers at our railway stations.
Supervising PCOs will lead a team of PCOs at Dandenong Police Station and take on some of the responsibilities currently being performed by the Officer in Charge of the police gaol.
Since the introduction of PCOs in January 2016, PCOs have freed up more than 50,000 police shifts.
That means more police out on the front line responding to incidents and keeping communities safe.
The number of police officers performing custody shifts has also decreased by almost 80 per cent at the 22 stations with PCOs.
There will be three squads of Supervisor PCOs with more than 50 positions to be recruited. The first squad will start training in July. All three squads will be trained by December and working across 15 stations by 2018, including at Dandenong Police Station.
On top of this Protective Services Officers (PSOs) at Dandenong Railway Station will be given new powers to target anti-social behaviour and crime, with legislation being introduced into Parliament this week.
PSOs will also be able to respond to incidents in and around the train station they are patrolling.
This forms part of the government’s historic $2 billion Community Safety Statement, which includes funding for an additional 100 mobile PSOs who will be rolled out across the network.