Victoria Police Acting Chief Commissioner Rick Nugent said community forums, which were regularly held across the state, were important for a variety of reasons.
“We get to hear first-hand from the local police commanders how they’re tackling some of the issues they have,” Chief Comm Nugent said.
“All areas have different challenges from time to time, whether it’s road trauma or crime, family violence, other types of offences.
“But more importantly is actually hearing from the community.
“Is what we’re doing working?
“What are their community safety concerns, issues, risk? And then we, the local area commanders as well, thinking about how we might tackle that.”
Chief Comm Nugent said hoon driving was something that had come up in the forum, both in Shepparton and Tatura, as well as people feeling unsafe using public amenities.
“We can’t have people feeling unsafe in an area again and again, but it’s not unique to Shepparton,” he said.
Chief Comm Nugent also flagged the “excellent partnerships” police had with other agencies to address youth challenges, tackle drug use in the community and work with other emergency services.
Shepparton police Inspector Bruce Simpson said the forums were a good chance to ensure police and community were “on the same page”, including making people feel safe and dealing with youth crime.
“We’ve still got some challenges in the community around some of our areas like the CBD and ... around homeless people in our community who need support,” he said.
“Any youth concern for us, because the youth is our next generation of leaders in the community, we’re very focused on putting as much support as we can around us to do it, or keep them out of the justice system.”
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