It has never been the bricks and mortar of a police station that has provided a sense of security and wellbeing to a community - it is instead the fact that police officers are out on the road, having a visible presence in the community.

Police data shows that very few members of the public visit or phone a number of police stations across the state between the hours of 11pm and 7am.

In some cases this means it is far more effective to have patrol units on the road responding to and preventing crime than having someone man a police station which has no calls or visitors.

That is why in some instances we have made the decision to put police officers out on the road at night and have reduced the opening hours of some police stations.

This will ensure we are using our resources far more effectively and enables our members to respond to any incident at a moments notice.

No police will be lost if a station is no longer open 24-hours. The purpose of these reviews is to add extra patrols as we move members from administrative roles to operational duties.

It is important to remember that stations will remain open for patrol units at all times- it is only overnight that they will be closed to the general public because units will be out on the road.

In these cases intercoms will be outside the police station to connect residents to Triple Zero.

The community should always call Triple Zero in case of an emergency for the most prompt police response.

For example, in 2007 it was identified that over the past year very few members of the public have visited or phoned Endeavour Hills Police Station between the hours of 11pm and 7am.

As such, since February of that year no members have been rostered on for duty inside the police station between these times.

Patrol units continue to operate out of the station 24-hours a day, seven days a week, and the phones at Endeavour Hills are diverted to Narre Warren which remains open around the clock.

This initiative has since been evaluated and as suspected these changes have not had any impact on the high level of police service the Endeavour Hills community currently receives. Nor have they had a detrimental impact on community safety.

In fact, these changes have further enhanced our overall service delivery to the community by allowing Victoria Police to allocate resources more effectively and deploy additional units during peak periods.

Share This Page