There are more police officers in the Yarra Ranges, Maroondah and Knox than ever before as part of the biggest investment in regional policing in Victoria Police’s 167 year history.
In March, Victoria Police announced Knox, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges Police Service Areas would receive 55 additional police over the coming twelve months – the most significant number of new police ever provided to these areas in one allotment.
Since the announcement, eight frontline constables have already started at stations including Olinda, Mount Evelyn, Boronia, Croydon and Lilydale. Three sergeants have commenced at Knox, three at Croydon and one at Boronia.
In addition, four more constables will start at police stations in Boronia, Knox, Croydon and Lilydale before the end of the year. A further ten constables will commence in early 2021 at Boronia, Knox, Healesville, Croydon, Mount Evelyn, Warburton and Yarra Junction. Two Sergeants will also commence at Croydon.
A total of 15 additional shared divisional resources, including sex offences and child abuse detectives, criminal investigators and highway patrol members, are already embedded within the local community.
An additional nine sex offences and child abuse detectives, criminal investigators and highway patrol members will commence by early 2021.
These police are part of 788 new police and 25 Protective Services Officers being deployed across the state in 2020-2021, which includes more than 350 frontline police bound for regional Victoria.
The new police are funded as part of the State Government’s Community Safety Statement, which is responsible for the deployment of 2729 new officers across the state between 2018 and 2022.
Superintendent Tony Glenane said the additional police had already provided a substantial boost to policing efforts, visibility and engagement across the local community.
“We have recently commenced our CommConnect program of engagement, tailored to work with and among our community on localised community safety issues which is all about more police being deployed to community engagement activities such as foot patrols.”
“These additional resources mark an exciting time for us as it provides an opportunity for increased community connection and allow us to address some of the community’s concerns, such as crime prevention, public order, and road trauma, in an increasingly timely manner.”
“The area we’re responsible for policing has a high number of major arterial roads which experience a significant amount of traffic flow between the CBD and growth areas in the south east.”
“Having additional Highway Patrol members on our roads will significantly boost our ability to address road trauma and proactively enforce against those who show a blatant disregard for road safety, including hoons and drug and drink drivers.”
“We also have more sex offences and child abuse detectives than ever before, ensuring we are well placed to not only support survivors of sexual and physical abuse, but further enhance our supervision and management of those with a history of serious sexual offending.”
A full breakdown of the 55 additional police officers allocated over the course of 2020/21 can be found below:
General duties police (31)
• Knox (12)
• Maroondah (11)
• Yarra Ranges (8)
Shared divisional resources (24)
• Divisional Highway Patrol (6)
• Divisional Crime Investigation Units (4)
• Divisional Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Teams (14)
This is in addition to 18 additional officers allocated to the Knox Division in 2019-2020 and four new police in 2018-2019.
