More police for Mornington Peninsula

In some good news for your Monday, I'm happy to be able to tell the Mornington Peninsula community about the creation of the Mornington Peninsula Crime Scene Unit.

This unit has been put together with some of the additional staff our division has received through what's known as the 1700 Project. The unit started duty on 30 July with an additional nine uniform personnel and two additional marked police cars on the Peninsula.

The unit operates out of the Rosebud Police Station, but their response zone covers both the Rosebud and Hastings Crime Response Zones. Crime Scene Officers from Frankston will mainatin coverage of Mornington.

The members of this Unit provide a "One Stop Shop" to victims of property crime, and support units in the field with forensic assistance when needed.  This means your original crime report can be provided over the phone to any of the local stations, who then can immediately transmit it electronically to the Crime Scene Officers in the field.

Once the Crime Scene Officers have your information, they will contact you and arrange your attendance either at a station close by, or meet with you at the crime location.  They are able to complete the report electronically and immediately upload it to the police data system.

Once that is complete, our Crime Scene Officers will conduct a thorough forensic examination of the crime scene using their specialist equipment.

We expect this level of crime scene examination to produce some great results not previously achieved in this area. Having extra specialist staff on the peninsula also frees up our local uniform members, allowing them to spend more time focusing on their tasks that protect our community.  This is also the case for our detectives, who will be able to focus their attention on their investigations.

I hope you never have to use the service of this new unit, but I know they will be an asset in our efforts to make this community the best in Victoria.

Matt Mulcahy
Senior Sergeant