Citing ongoing staffing problems, Victoria police say they’re pulling seven officers from the region’s integrated units and redeploying them as street cops.
The move, effective Nov. 7, means the region’s traffic, organized crime and national-security units will be short of officers.
“Officer injuries, both physical and psychological, combined with the volume, complexity and severity of calls have placed a strain on the Patrol Division that is neither acceptable nor sustainable,” the department said in a news release. “This redeployment of officers to VicPD’s Patrol Division is intended to better meet public expectations regarding VicPD’s ability to respond to calls for service.”
VicPD says 39 of its 249 officers are currently unable to respond to calls for reasons that include physical and psychological injuries. An additional 17 officers are in training.
“When citizens call for help, they expect that an officer will arrive to help them quickly,” Chief Del Manak said. “Without this change and further changes, VicPD cannot maintain that basic level of service.”
Manak said while integrated units “do important work,” from keeping roads safe to investigating organized crime groups and national security threats, “we have to prioritize for our community.”
Staffing shortages had already spurred the department to reallocate resources. In 2018, it reassigned its three school liaison officers, an intelligence officer, a reserve program officer and a beat officer to patrol.
In 2019, it made the controversial decision to disband its Crime Reduction Unit. This year, officers were removed from the multi-disciplinary teams that support people with severe mental health and addictions problems.
