Most train stations to be left without permanent night patrols as PSOs redeployed to shopping centres

Protective services officers will no longer permanently patrol most train stations across Melbourne’s transport network at night under the most significant overhaul of their remit in more than a decade.

The change is among a suite of measures announced by Victoria Police and the state government on Saturday that will also include the deployment of PSOs and police to shopping centres around Christmas, and the creation of a reservist force to free officers from desk jobs.

Under the changes, PSOs will have an expanded presence at 32 “high-risk” train stations, with officers patrolling the platforms from 9am until the last service, instead of from 6pm.

They will also continue to have a permanent nightly presence at 72 lower-crime stations on the network, starting from 6pm. In the remaining “low-crime rate” 120 stations, the officers will operate in mobile clusters, with each team moving between six stations.

PSOs have had a nightly presence at train stations since 2010, when the Baillieu government was elected on a promise to put two at every station each night between 6pm and the final train service.

Victoria Police and the government have not made public which stations will fall under each category, but most of Melbourne’s CBD stations are likely to be considered high-risk. Details are expected next year.

Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said the change would allow officers to travel on the public transport network and to patrol the shopping areas immediately around those stations.

“That will give us a far more intelligent, far more effective way of preventing crime and keeping people across that network safe,” Bush told reporters on Saturday.

But public transport researchers worry that reducing the presence of PSOs in some train stations could jeopardise the safety of public transport users.

“It is a concern if they don’t get this right and if we spread these resources too thin,” said Professor Graham Currie, chair of public transport at Monash University.

“It would be better to see an expansion of their scale rather than using the existing resources. This has to be done well and has to be done carefully.”

Dr Rumana Sarker, who has led a new study at the university about women’s safety on public transport, said her research showed passengers wanted a “human presence”, whether that be the police or a trained staff member.

Sarker said almost half the women surveyed in the study said experiencing harassment had influenced their travel behaviour. Of those surveyed, 68 per cent said they travelled less now than before they were harassed. Women felt the least safe on trams, where there were no PSOs.

“They want somebody they can talk to in real time if something goes wrong,” Sarker said. “Our research showed having a PSO at a train station is what made women feel safest.”

The safety concerns were also echoed by Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt, who also questioned whether police staff had been appropriately consulted about the raft of changes.

“In over 30 years of experience, there’s one thing about crime that I have learned: If you put two PSOs or two police on a street corner, it is very unlikely that someone will commit a crime in front of them,” Gatt said.

But Police Minister Anthony Carbines said the changes were about gaining flexibility to deploy PSOs “where they need it most, not where they’ve always been”. Police will use CCTV footage in real time to make decisions about where staff are most needed.

“Our protective services officers are a crime reduction tool, but right now, they’re hamstrung by the past and glued to their seats, even if crime is occurring just down the street,” he said.

He said the changes were informed by police data that suggested crime in train stations largely occurred in the afternoon. Asked whether the drop in nighttime crime was a result of PSOs at the stations, Carbines acknowledged criminals often offend when they know fewer police are around, but insisted the changes were informed by intelligence.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece, who had been pushing for the change, said Melbourne experienced a 20 per cent increase in crime in the past year, mostly in areas near train stations.

“Having more PSOs on the streets, in retail precincts, around stations should be a game changer for the city with the four City Loop stations and five new Metro stations,” Reece said.

The shopping centre patrols will form part of a $2.3 million 90-day operation due to launch before Christmas. They will be staffed on a voluntary basis and counted as overtime.

The state government will also fund 842 new search wands at a cost of almost $1 million for officers to conduct weapons searches in designated areas. Currently, the force has between 40 and 50.

Carbines said police would use their expanded powers to make the shopping centres designated search areas, and new legislation would not be required to enact the changes.

The Shopping Centre Council of Australia said the operation would help tackle an alarming rise in retail crime rates at one of the busiest times of the year.

Council chief executive Angus Nardi said retailers had been grappling with an increasing number of offenders armed with machetes, knives, crowbars and cricket bats. Gang attacks had also become a worry.

As part of the changes, Victoria Police will also recruit 200 police reservists to fill low-risk desk jobs, including administrative duties at police stations, to free up officers to go out on the beat.

Bush said he was confident the force would find enough officers willing to volunteer to enact the plan, despite grappling with more than 1100 vacancies across its ranks.

“There’s a lot in it for them, I think they’ll enjoy it. They’ll enjoy being part of the community. They’ll enjoy preventing crime and responding to calls,” he said.

The changes are part of the second round of police reforms spearheaded by Bush, who last month announced he would create a new 24-hour crime control centre and trim the number of police executives.

Gatt said the reservists idea had “real potential”, but the lack of details concerned him.

“How will you recruit them? Where will they be trained? And who’s paying for this? Because Victoria Police is hundreds of millions of dollars above its operating budget today. So where’s this money coming from?”

Opposition police spokesperson David Southwick said it was wishful thinking to expect officers to volunteer for extra shifts in the lead-up to Christmas.

“We know we’ve got PSOs and police already exhausted babysitting protesters. The last thing that they’re going to want to do is go and do another job,” Southwick said.

He said pulling officers from train stations was “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and potentially exposing public transport users in stations no longer permanently policed.

With Chip Le Grand

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