By Alesha Capone
CAROLINE Springs residents have called for their police station to operate 24 hours a day.
Caroline Springs Residents Association president Joy Cox said more police officers were needed during the evening.
“We need them badly. In the day, there’s enough, but we need them at night when the crime’s higher,” Ms Cox said.
“I think there would be less problems with hoons and property damage and things like that if we had a 24hour station.”
The officer-in-charge of the Caroline Springs station, Senior Sergeant Nicole Warner, said besides her, the station has four sergeants and 15 uniformed members, although this could change depending on leave entitlements.
The station is open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, but has two officers on patrol seven days a week, including nights.
However, another Caroline Springs resident, Lisa Dennis, said she would like a 24 hour station and more officers, after the State Government promised almost 2000 extra police for the state during the recent budget.
Ms Dennis said she once discovered a box full of stolen DVDs left beside the road near Watergardens.
“I rang the station and was told, ‘Sorry, there’s a wait of an hour before we can get there’,” she said.
“A lot of the time because it’s short-staffed, no one there. You get a recorded message if they’re not there.
“They often call on Melton police, they’re so short-staffed.”
Ms Cox said this meant there weren’t enough police to protect people.
“It takes 20 minutes for police to come here from Melton. In that time, you could be dead, anything could happen,” she said.
Sen Sgt Warner said the station always tried to have someone in reception during the day, but occasionally officers were required to do something else, like take a statement.
She said officers could also be called to Melton to help out when a family violence or mental health issue required a lot of police time.
“We’d love to become a 24 hour police station at sometime in the future,” she said.
A spokesperson for the State Government said the Brimbank Police Service Area’s police numbers have increased by 25 per cent since 2001.
