Lib calls for police station at Leopold
A NEW police station needs to be opened in Leopold, the Bellarine’s second highest crime hot spot, a state election candidate claims.
Policeman and Liberal candidate Brian McKiterick, who is taking on Victoria’s Police Minister Lisa Neville, has signalled his intent to push for the new station to take the strain off police in the region.
“It’s quite obvious to the Bellarine community that there’s a need for a larger police presence on the Bellarine,” Mr McKiterick said.
“Placing a new police station strategically in Leopold will ensure that that will support northern Bellarine, and allow Ocean Grove police sta- tion to police the southern part of Bellarine.
“I will be advocating strongly as the candidate, and if elected in November, to ensure there’s a new police station in the Leopold area.”
There are four police stations in the Bellarine electorate, located in Ocean Grove, Queenscliff, Portarlington and Drysdale. None of them are 24-hour operations.
Total offences in the Bellarine electorate’s 11 suburbs skyrocketed in the year to June 2015 (1788 offences) and 2016 (1906 offences), but have de- – JAALA PULFORD, PICTURED MEETING ONE OF THE RESIDENTS YESTERDAY clined in the past two years, to 1846 in 2017 and 1698 in 2018.
In the year to June 2018 Leopold has seen the second most offences in the electorate, with 340, just below the 359 recorded offences in Ocean Grove for the same period.
Mr McKiterick’s push for the new police station comes after six police officers were assaulted and three hospitalised in a Queenscliff pub brawl on August 26.
Two responding officers to reports of drunk and disorderly behaviour at the Queenscliff Brewhouse were required to call for backup from Geelong and the Bellarine, after allegedly being set on by two men while trying to remove another male from the Brewhouse.
Three men allegedly attempted to flee after the assault but were apprehended in an alley when several pubgoers allegedly turned on police.
Officers were forced to use capsicum spray in a bid to calm the intoxicated crowd. Mr McKiterick said the incident highlighted the need for a new police station on the Bellarine.