A STATEWIDE crime wave has sparked a Victoria Police restructure, with more officers set to be dedicated to frontline policing.
Statistics released last month showed that crime in Frankston is at its highest level in a decade. The 13,754 criminal incidents recorded in the Frankston local government area in the year ending June 2025 was a whopping 18.8 percent increase on the year prior. In neighbouring Kingston criminal incidents rose by 14.6 percent, and a 10.6 percent increase in criminal incidents was recorded in the Mornington Peninsula Shire. (“Rising crime levels unacceptable” The Times 30/9/2025). On Sunday, homicide squad detectives opened an investigation after the discovery of a body on Langwarrin.
Last week, Victoria Police confirmed it would implement a range of new measures and trials to curtail the rising crime rate. In a statement, Victoria Police said “at the heart of the proposed new structure is a slimmed-down executive team, the backline of Victoria Police, that will enable a reinvestment in the frontline.” Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush highlighted Victoria’s crime issues when announcing the plan. He said “we have a crime problem here in Victoria; there is no escaping this fact.”
Planned measures include the establishment of a “state crime coordination centre” to gather information and provide real time insights to frontline police so resources can be deployed as needed. A trial to release more police officers from reception counter duties will also launch in the next six months, alongside a plan to set up a dedicated workforce of former officers within police stations to undertake paperwork.
Chief Commissioner Bush said “the levels of offending we are seeing in our community are entirely unacceptable. Good people, innocent people going about their everyday lives, are being victimised, on the streets and in their own homes. This cannot continue.”
“Getting ahead of this crime problem requires consequences for those offenders who drive fear in our communities combined with ongoing swift arrests and proactive operations. But it will also require a fundamental shift in how Victoria Police operates. We need to change how we police, so that we can get ahead of the criminals and stop the offending before it happens,” he said. “Prevention and deterrence, these are the hallmarks of our strategy moving forwards as we seek to drive our crime rate down.
“If we are to prevent crime, then it starts with properly resourcing and enabling our frontline police officers. Right now, police spend more than 4,000 hours per day – or 1.4 million hours per year – staffing reception counters in police stations. This is poor use of their invaluable skills and it’s not what they want to be doing. We must get more police out of their stations and onto the streets where they can respond to and deter crimes.”
First published in the Mornington News – 21 October 2025
