Victoria Police has today responded to an article in The Australian which claims that Victoria Police is ‘stonewalling' the release of a report regarding the Safe Streets Task-force.

This is not correct. Up until recently Victoria Police legitimately believed that both reports - ‘Evaluation of Safe Streets' and a ‘Safer Victoria - a whole-of-government approach to public safety' were Cabinet-in-Confidence documents and could therefore not be released under Freedom of Information.

As soon as Victoria Police became aware that this was not the case, it started to take steps to determine how much information could be released, as quickly as possible.

Victoria Police would have liked to release these documents much sooner but unfortunately this has not been possible. A vast amount of the information and data included in the 400 page reports has been provided by other government agencies.

Victoria Police has had to consult with these agencies prior to releasing their data and unfortunately this is taking longer than expected.

We appreciate that the issue of alcohol related violence is of significant public interest. Victoria Police has always been very open with the community about the extent of alcohol related violence and public order issues in the community, particularly in the Melbourne CBD, and has never hidden behind the fact that it is a significant community concern that must be addressed.

We reject wholeheartedly any notion that we are delaying the release of this report until after the election. As said before, Victoria Police would have liked to have released this report earlier but this is not possible so instead we are trying to publicly release as much of the documents as possible as quickly as we can.

Following the release of the reports, we welcome any opportunity to publicly discuss the key issues raised in the report and highlight how Victoria Police has implemented a range of strategies to address alcohol related violence and improve safety.

In addition, Victoria Police strongly refutes any suggestion that its Media Unit has an inappropriate working relationship with government media advisors.

We have an entirely appropriate relationship with the government of the day and at all times operational independence is maintained.

It is important that we communicate with the government regarding media matters that are appropriate for us to discuss.

However, It is entirely Victoria Police's decision on how we deal with media issues.

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