Cops’ happy day

GEELONG police had two reasons to celebrate yesterday.

The first was the announcement by Bellarine MP and Police Minister Lisa Neville that Geelong would very soon be getting 10 more police officers as part of the latest roll outs.

This is proportionally under what this city needs especially when compared to other Police Service Areas whose allocations were also announced yesterday.

So while the Geelong Division got 10, the Dandenong division got 50 and the Brimbank Division got 63.

So we’re still a little undercooked Ms Neville.

But insiders are promising there are dozens more to come over the next two years.

We can only hope their word is their bond.

This injection of officers into communities fighting crime is certainly good policy. But it is also good politics. Ms Neville and Premier Daniel Andrews have had their fingers burnt by a rise in lawlessness such as home invasions and carjackings.

The lawlessness has in turn led to vigilante groups springing up to do neighbourhood patrols and otherwise performing what is probably best left to the police.

This leads to the other cause for happiness for the Geelong police yesterday.

Our local officers arrested vigilante Nick Cross.

Mr Cross had headed up a group of residents who conducted nightly anti-crime patrols in the city’s north following a rise in crime last year.

The group said it was acting out of frustration at a lack of police response to incidents of crime in the northern suburbs.

Mr Cross was arrested for allegedly driving a stolen car without a licence.

It is up to a court to determine if he is guilty of what he is accused of.

But as a general observation it is probably best to leave the fighting of crime to the professionals.

If obtaining some extra officers on the beat and getting to apprehend a rival start up isn’t enough to put a spring in a copper’s step then nothing will.