Arabic version: شرطة فيكتوريا تستقطب أفراد احتياط لتخفيف نقص الكوادر

According to ABC News, Victoria Police has launched a recruitment drive for hundreds of former officers to return as reservists, aiming to reduce administrative work for frontline staff and put more officers back on the streets.

Reservists will undertake office duties including working at public counters in police stations and preparing evidence for court. Victoria Police ultimately aims for reservists to cover the equivalent of 2,000 shifts a week. Dozens were being deployed in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, with 200 positions due to be filled by December and another 200 from early next year.

Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said reducing paperwork would help officers address crime proactively and could improve staff retention. Victoria Police is seeking to fill a staffing deficit of nearly 1,500 members by the middle of 2028. Its full-time equivalent workforce has fallen 5 per cent over five years while Victoria’s population grew 7 per cent.

The workforce decline has coincided with a 10 per cent rise in adult crime over 12 months. Premier Ben Carroll said the reservist program would support the government’s priority of staffing police stations for more days and hours, after concerns about limited public-counter opening times at some stations, including Footscray.

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt welcomed the announcement but said the force still had 1,407 vacancies and urged faster action. Shadow Police Minister Brad Battin supported the move but said it did not go far enough, pledging that his party would recruit 3,000 more officers if elected at the November state election.