Vow to spike police paperwork

By Tania Martin
SHADOW Minister for Police and Emergency Services Kim Wells has vowed to upgrade technology to cut back on police paperwork if he is voted in at the state election in November.
This comes after Mr Wells visited the Monbulk, Olinda and Belgrave police stations and spoke to the Country Fire Authority volunteers in Olinda recently.
Mr Wells said one of the major issues highlighted by police was the amount of time that is spent on doing paper work.
“The message has come across loud and strong that they are spending an unnecessary amount of time on paperwork,” Mr Wells said.
He said police are spending up to six hours on paperwork for one domestic incident. “If we are elected at the next state election we will make sure that technology is upgraded so that police can utilise their time better and spend more time out on the beat,” he said.
Visiting the Olinda CFA, Mr Wells said a large number of CFA volunteers are concerned about how the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiations are going to impact on them.
He said full-time firefighters were negotiating the EBA with the CFA management but in the meantime the volunteers felt that they were being left out.
“It is time the CFA management stood up and started protecting the hard-working volunteers who protect the Hills, instead of trying to please the United Firefighters Union,” he said.
Mr Wells also visited Belgrave police and was disappointed that the State Government hadn’t fulfilled its 1999 election promise to make the station a 24-hours service. He said he was concerned that the police station was still only manned 16 hours a day and that residents needing assistance have to push a ‘buzzer’ which is connected to Knox police to get assistance.
Monbulk MP James Merlino invited Mr Wells to resign his seat and join the police force. “He seems to think he can run the force better than the police themselves,” Mr Merlino said.
“The Bracks Government has invested heavily in community safety, building new stations in Belgrave and will soon commence construction in Olinda.
“New stations and more officers across Victoria has directly led to a drop in crime. In the outer east the overall crime rate has dropped by 12 per cent with property crime rate down by a significant 19.9 per cent.”
Mr Merlino assured the Belgrave community that it was protected 24 hours a day.
“I am sure residents would much rather have the police mobile and patrolling the streets at 3am rather than having the community have to attend the station.”