The Police Association is concerned officers will be redeployed from “struggling” stations to staff the new 24-hour station at Mernda.
The $15 million police station will be built on the corner of Bridge Inn Road and Pimpinella Pass, and is expected to open late 2017.
The state government recently appointed ADCO Constructions to design and build the project, but the police association is concerned no extra first-response police positions have been allocated to the new station.
In 2014, it called on the government to provide 110 additional police to the Whittlesea municipality in the face of rapid population growth.
Secretary Ron Iddles said, without a dedicated commitment of extra police to the new station, officers will inevitably be taken from nearby stations that are already struggling to keep pace with increasing demand for police services.
“Police stations are just buildings without the first-response police officers needed to keep the doors open and vans on the road, to assist the community,” Mr Iddles said.
“Filling a building with highway patrol officers or specialists may give a perception that the doors are open for business, but without adequate numbers of first-response police, the community will see little tangible difference in the essential services they rely on most.”
Mernda Needs a Police Station campaign spokesman Tom Joseph said the community expected extra police to be allocated before the new Mernda police station opens.
He said people campaigned for a station at Mernda because they believe the suburb needs a greater police presence.
“If they are going to move police from Epping and Mill Park, it is self-defeating,” he said.
Police Minister Lisa Neville would not commit to providing extra officers for Whittlesea, but said the state budget had delivered more than 400 new sworn officers, who would be deployed at the discretion of Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton.
Ms Neville said Mernda police station would be a “crime fighting hub”, and would house uniformed and family violence officers, and a criminal investigation unit, along with other police units and administrative staff.
