Hannah Hammoud
The Keilor Downs police station will join several stations across the state that will no longer have 24-hour reception counters, as Victoria Police continues to face staff shortages.
Victoria Police said reception counter hours will be “temporarily” reduced during off peak times at 43 police stations across Victoria, but provided no timeline as to when reception counter hours will return as normal.
Victoria Police said officers formerly rostered on for reception shifts will instead be diverted for frontline policing duties, such as community patrols.
Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Neil Paterson said reception counter hour reductions will occur predominantly during the evening or overnight when they are rarely attended.
“Make no mistake – Victoria Police is not closing any police stations,” he said.
“Even when reception counters are unstaffed, police continue to patrol the local community and often, still work within the station.”
It is expected 23 police stations will reduce reception counter hours towards the end of November. A further 20 stations, including the Keilor Downs station, are also earmarked for reduced counter hours in the coming months.
The Keilor Downs police station reception counter hours will be reduced from 24 hours, down to eight hours per day.
North west metro division three Acting Superintendent Shane Brundell said the reduced hours at the station will allow police to respond to urgent incidents.
“Anyone who needs to attend a police station during these hours can go to Sunshine Police Station which is only 7km away and open 24 hours,” he said.
St Albans resident Jenny Isa said the community has growing concerns about local crime in the area.
“Crime is getting out of hand,” she said.
“We as a community have a lot of concerns and we’d like to know when this end date [of the reduced reception hours] is.
“We can’t live in uncertainty. People don’t feel safe.”
Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Neil Paterson said every Australian policing jurisdiction is currently experiencing resourcing challenges and police counter reductions are also occurring in other states.
“When given the choice, police know crime is most effectively deterred and detected via highly visible patrols in the community, rather than from behind a scarcely attended reception counter,” he said.
