Blue Light discos may be a thing of the past following Victoria Police cuts to the vital 38-year-old crime prevention initiative.
Victoria Police will pull staff from working at the drug- and alcohol-free events as of March 31 following a directive from Commander Sue Clark, revealed in a leaked email. The decision pulls on-duty police from the state’s 41 alcohol-free discos to attend to frontline policing.
Ms Clark said police must support all community groups, not just Blue Light discos.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman told the Weekly it would continue to be up to local police to use their discretion in supporting programs such as Blue Light so that community engagement remained a priority. But it would be up to local police to ensure the engagement didn’t affect frontline operations.
As of April 1, police who attend discos will no longer be compensated with four hours’ time off in lieu. They will instead be paid overtime.
Two full-time positions – the Blue Light state co-ordinator and the sole police officer at the Maldon Victorian Blue Light Youth Camp – have been axed. Blue Light chief executive Ivan Ray said accountants were appointed last week to assess the full extent of the damage to the program from the police decision. He said so far they estimated “Blue Light needs about $250,000 to keep going.”
“I can’t predict, but I know the vast majority of discos will dry up and go away. I started it and I might have the dubious pleasure of wrapping it up.”
Mr Ray spoke about his concerns to shadow police minister Wade Noonan last Tuesday, who also fears the new model is unsustainable.
Mr Noonan said the discos were “a cornerstone of a crime prevention strategy that the police have engaged with for almost 30 years”.
“But I was left in no doubt having spoken to Ivan Ray that they’re now operating in crisis mode and are now looking for a lifeline,” he said.
The Blue Light program began in 1976 and has since evolved into an essential part of Victoria Police’s youth crime prevention program. In the Hume and Whittlesea area, there are four Blue Light branches – Hume (Craigieburn), Mill Park, Sunbury and Inner North West.
Craigieburn Senior Sergeant Glenn Parker, who attended his local Blue Light disco as a child, said Craigieburn police station would continue to have a strong commitment to the program.
Leading Senior Constable Tim Forster, from Epping police station, said the station could probably allocate the time to the discos, “but it might be drastically reduced, as well as the number of officers who can attend”.
