MILL Park police station is at breaking point, with officers being taken off the road and used as “jailers”, according to a police source.
Every day three sergeants and three officers, with another three officers in a support role, are rostered over three shifts to guard prisoners in the station’s 10 holding cells, the source said.
Whittlesea and Epping police stations, which do not have cells, are being called on to supply officers to Mill Park to cover the members on guard duty, they said. “There will come a day when the station cannot send out a divvy van because it does not have enough officers for proactive policing and responding to calls,” the source said.
Mill Park has 10 sergeants, compared with Sunshine’s 19 and 15 at Broadmeadows, and the “jail house drain” was reaching a “tipping point”, they said. “Regardless whether there is one prisoner or 10, police staff must be rostered on for prisoner guard duty.”
The source said Chief Commissioner Ken Lay came to an agreement with the Office of Corrections last year to use police station cells for prisoners awaiting sentence or those already sentenced but appearing in court on other matters, but no additional police were provided.
Police Association assistant secretary Bruce McKenzie said Mill Park was the state’s “hot spot” and the union was “surprised” and “shocked” at the problem.
He said police command had been supportive, but the problem of police cells being used as quasi jails was “long term”.
Inspector Bob Dykstra said: “There is a statewide review of custody management, and staffing levels do fluctuate, but we are experiencing significant rostering issues.” He declined to elaborate.
