Victoria Police has refused to announce if Melton or Caroline Springs would be a “host” station to 37 new police officers.
Police squads 12 and 13 – made up of 21 men and 16 women – graduated from the Police Academy today and will be deployed to stations across the state next week.
Victoria Police spokeswoman Clair White said the graduates moved through several different areas of the organisation for 21 weeks following graduates.
“They don’t get allocated a permanent station as a probationary constable until week 54, which means they are not attached to any station are not counted in a division’s police numbers until this time,” Ms White said.
“Due to the amount of locations they work at during the rotation period, we don’t confirm which stations host new graduates.”
When asked how Victoria Police identified where graduates would be deployed to, and if it depended on factors such as crime statistics or population growth, Ms White said: “As I stated earlier, we are not in a position to detail the locations all 37 graduates will be working from”.
Police Minister Lisa Neville released a statement today congratulating the 37 officers who graduated from the Academy and announced the state government was “delivering on its promise to give police the resources and powers they need to keep Victorians safe”.
But Ms White said the graduates were not part of a new allocation of police or a new government announcement.
“This was just a regular graduation.”
The announcement comes just a day before a rally calling for extra police in Melton and Caroline Springs.
As previously reported by Star Weekly, there are 76 first-response officers in the area – well below the state average.
An additional 55 officers are needed to be on par with the average police to population ration, and a further 81 officers in order to keep up with the population growth.
The state government has been contacted for comment.
More to come.
