By ALESHA CAPONE
MORE than 520 residents have signed a petition calling for more officers and increased opening hours at Caroline Springs Police Station.
Keilor MP Natalie Hutchins recently submitted the petition to State Parliament, on top of another petition with 430 signatures which she presented in June.
The petition called on the State Government to “make our community safe again by providing more police officers to be based at Caroline Springs Police Station and for the station to be opened 24 hours a day and operating seven days a week”.
Out of six municipalities in Melbourne’s West, Melton has the second-lowest amount of sworn full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers.
The area had 80 FTE police officers in June this year.
Elsewhere in the West, there were 155 police officers in Brimbank, 97 in Moonee Valley, 87 in Wyndham, 84 in Hobsons Bay and 68 in Maribyrnong.
After the State Government released its budget in the middle of the year, Ms Hutchins said there was “no provision in the budget for additional police for the Melton or Brimbank regions”.
“In particular, the Caroline Springs police station desperately needs more officers and to be accessible 24 hours a day, as other stations are,” she said.
A Victoria Police spokesman said the Caroline Springs station, although open to the public from 8am to 5pm weekdays, operated as a 24-hour station with a divisional police van patrolling the area around-the-clock.
In parliament, Western metropolitan region MP Colleen Hartland also asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services about the future of the Keilor Downs Police Station when its lease expires during 2015.
Victoria Police Inspector Ian Geddes said tenders have been called for upgrades to be made at the station.
He also said new police would be allocated to Melton in the future, but exactly how many would be a decision for local commanders.
