Ex-copper slams force
Eight burglaries in a year and thieves still roam free
A FORMER Geelong policewoman who has been the victim of eight burglaries in the past year has criticised law enforcement for its “alarmingly bad” response.
Ocean Grove resident Christine Smith, who served as a policewoman for 20 years, said she felt she couldn’t rely on “under-resourced” police after items valued at up to $15,000 were stolen during the burglaries.
Ms Smith said she had given police strong evidence after the burglaries — which she believed were all linked to the same offender — but was concerned the investigation had been put into “the toohard basket”.
“At two of them there were fingerprints, good fingerprints, and at two there were witnesses who gave detailed accounts of the offender and the car,” Ms Smith said.
“After the seventh burglary I was at one of my houses, and the offender turned up at the house and took off — so I took the rego.
“The next morning at 6am, I had a ‘hot burglary’ at one of my houses — the offender was at the house at the time when I rang police.
“We got to the house about two minutes after they left, and I sat at the house from 6 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock at night waiting for the police to turn up.”
Ms Smith said despite the seemingly strong evidence she had struggled to get a response from “uninterested” police. “There are witnesses at different addresses, there are fingerprints,” she said.
“They’ve stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff from me. I’ve had to install thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of security cameras and alarm systems in these houses, all because we do not get the support of the police.”
“The response has been alarmingly bad.
“We do not feel like we can rely on the police to assist us with this.”
Victoria Police were contacted for a response to Ms Smith’s claim yesterday afternoon. They had not responded before deadline.
“The response has been alarmingly bad. We do not feel like we can rely on the police to assist us with this.” CHRISTINE SMITH