By ALESHA CAPONE
POLICE have increased patrols at Newport railway station due to the number of burglaries and thefts from cars that have been happening in the area.
Hobsons Bay community liaison officer Senior Constable Sharon Radau said she believed there had recently been “a small increase” in these types of offences occurring in the station’s car park.
Sen Const Radau said Hobsons Bay officers and police from the Operations Response Unit in the city were targeting stations across Melbourne as part of a rolling campaign, which included the municipalities of Wyndham and Maribyrnong.
“On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were at Newport last week, it was fairly quiet, but it’s good to be seen,” she said.
Last Friday, Metro Trains, VicTrack, Hobsons Bay City Council, Hobsons Bay police and the Victoria Police Transit Safety Division Proactive Unit (TSDPU) also visited the station.
The transit department has prepared an audit into ways of improving security around the station.
Metro Trains and VicTrack will work with the police to see if any of the report’s advice can be implemented.
TSDPU Sergeant Mark Vonarx told Star increasing the number of security cameras at the station was mentioned in the audit’s recommendations.
“One of them is to review and/or upgrade the cameras, lighting and signage in the car parks,” he said.
Sgt Vonarx said safety audits of train stations could include checking for infrastructure and vegetation which offered people an opportunity to hide and graffiti in the number of abandoned buildings nearby.
He said the Newport Flour Mill was one potential safety hazard near the station.
“”There’s a big abandoned mill at the moment; it’s a haunt and kids go there and climb up through the windows and go in and drink and take drugs,” he said.
“It’s a magnet for that sort of activity.”
Sgt Vonarx said immediate and low-cost measures which could help improve Newport station included installing transparent bins, painting over graffiti quickly, signs at platform ends and playing safety messages over the PA system.
“Statistically, people are much safer on a train than walking the streets, but that’s not the perception,” he said.
